Epstein–Barr virus and carcinomas: Undifferentiated carcinomas but not squamous cell carcinomas of the nasopharynx are regularly associated with the virus

Abstract

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is consistently associated with undifferentiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). There is, however, conflicting evidence as to whether squamous cell NPCs are also EBV-associated. Moreover, it has been proposed that other epithelial tumours, particularly thymomas and thymic carcinomas, should be included in the group of EBV-associated neoplasias. However, since the viral DNA in these studies was demonstrated only in extracted DNA, the cellular origin of the viral DNA is uncertain. We have therefore investigated 152 epithelial tumours from various sites for the presence of EBV-DNA by in situ hybridization with 35S-labelled probes. Sixty-eight of 77 undifferentiated NPCs showed an EBV-specific autoradiographic signal, thus confirming the strong association of this tumour type with EBV even in geographical areas where undifferentiated NPC is not endemic. None of eight squamous cell NPCs showed an EBV-specific signal. All of 15 carcinomas with a similar morphology to undifferentiated NPC but from different anatomic sites (thymus, tonsil, breast) were EBV-negative as were 9 thymomas, 26 squamous cell carcinomas of the palatine tonsil, and 14 cervical carcinomas. Our results therefore suggest a unique association of EBV with undifferentiated NPC and support concepts assigning different biological properties to undifferentiated NPC as compared with squamous cell NPC.

Epstein-Barr virus transformation: involvement of latent membrane protein 1-mediated activation of NF-κB

“…EBV is etiologically associated with several human malignancies grouped by ethnicity or geography such as nasopharyngeal carcinoma in southern Chinese, Burkitt's lymphoma in Africans, Hodgkin's disease in North Americans and Europeans, and gastric carcinomas in people from industrialized nations (Epstein et al, 1967;Henle and Henle, 1970;Niedobitek et al, 1991;Shibata and Weiss, 1992;Weiss et al, 1987). In vitro, EBV infects and transforms resting primary human B lymphocytes into continuously proliferating LCLs (Pope et al, 1968(Pope et al, , 1969reviewed in Rickinson and Kie , 1996).…”

MDM2 expression in EBV-infected nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells

“…1 Although Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) has been closely associated with NPC, 2,3 hereditary and environmental factors, such as salted fish, Chinese herbs and long-term exposure to sulfuric acid vapor, have also been suspected to be related to NPC induction. 4,5 In fact, the etiological factors have yet to be clearly identified.…”

Functional Analysis of EBV in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Cells

“…BV has been closely associated with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), one of the most common cancers in South China, Taiwan, and Singapore (Klein et al, 1974;Niedobitek et al, 1991;Raab-Traub et al, 1983;Waterhouse et al, 1982). Heredity and environmental factors such as salted fish, Chinese herbs, and long-term exposure to sulfuric acid vapor may contribute to NPC induction (Armstrong et al, 1983;Ho et al, 1999).…”