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Epstein-Barr virus antibody patterns preceding the diagnosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma

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Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients have elevated IgG and IgA antibody titers against the Epstein-Barr viral capsid antigen (VCA) and the diffuse component of the early antigen complex (EA-D) at diagnosis. Several studies have implied that the presence of anti-VCA-IgA can be used as a screening marker for early NPC. To evaluate this further, we undertook a serologic case-control study based on four serum banks which together had specimens from over 240,000 persons. Seven cases of undifferentiated or poorly differentiated NPC were diagnosed in the period after serum collection ranging from 26 months to 154 months. Two controls per case matched on serum bank, age, sex, race, and date of serum collection were selected by a predetermined random process. For anti-VCA-IgG, the geometric mean titer for cases (88.3) was significantly higher than that for controls (75.5, P<0.05). The difference was greatest among the Asian patients. No significant differences were found for anti-VCA-IgA, anti-EA-D, and anti-EA-R or anti-EBNA. No time effects were evident when titers were plotted against time of blood collection preceding diagnosis, Our results do not suggest EBV activation in the period preceding NPC diagnosis, not that detectable IgA antibody against VCA is a marker for early disease.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA

    Chee Khoon Chan & Nancy Mueller

  2. Science University of Malaysia, Malaysia

    Chee Khoon Chan

  3. Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT

    Alfred Evans

  4. Department of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA

    Nancy L. Harris

  5. Department of Epidemiology, School of Hygiene and Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD

    George W. Comstock, B. Frank Polk & Joseph Vogelman

  6. University Institute for Clinical Biochemistry, Rikshospitalet, Oslo, Norway

    Egil Jellum

  7. Cancer Registry of Norway, Oslo, Norway

    Knut Magnus

  8. The Orentreich Foundation for the Advancement of Science, New York, NY

    Norman Orentreich

Authors
  1. Chee Khoon Chan
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  2. Nancy Mueller
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  3. Alfred Evans
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  4. Nancy L. Harris
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  5. George W. Comstock
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  6. Egil Jellum
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  7. Knut Magnus
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  8. Norman Orentreich
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  9. B. Frank Polk
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  10. Joseph Vogelman
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Additional information

GC, EJ, KM, NO, and JV are members of the EBV-NPC collaboration. BFP was a member of the EBV-NPC collaboration. This study was supported by PHS grants CA31747, CA30433, BRSG RR05446, BRSG RR05443, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services and by a staff training fellowship from the Science University of Malaysia to C. K. Chan. The follow-up of the HDFP study population is supported by PHS grant CA34937.

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Chan, C.K., Mueller, N., Evans, A. et al. Epstein-Barr virus antibody patterns preceding the diagnosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Cancer Causes Control 2, 125–131 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00053132

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00053132

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