Epstein‐barr virus‐associated antibodies and serum biochemistry in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Abstract

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is difficult to diagnose in its early stages. It also has frequent recurrences and/or distant metnstases after radiotherapy. Extensive clinical, serological and biochemical studies were done during 1980‐1982 on 351 patients to aid in the diagnosis of the disease, especially with recurrence or metastasis. Seropositive rates of the antibody titers against viral capsid antigens (VCA) and early antigens (EA) of Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV) in IgG and IgA classes were 41.7%‐100%. They ranked, in order of frequency: anti‐VCA/IgA, anti‐VCA/IgG, anti‐EA/IgG, and anti‐EA/IgA. Mean total serum IgG and IgA levels were moderately increased in all patients. Serum GOT, GPT, alkaline phosphatase, laclnte dehydrogenase and mucoprotein were elevated either alone or in combination in a few patients before treatment, in many patients with recurrence or metastases, and in all patients with liver metastasis.

Improved Accuracy of Detection of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma by Combined Application of Circulating Epstein–Barr Virus DNA and Anti-Epstein–Barr Viral Capsid Antigen IgA Antibody

“…Such selective application of the EBV DNA test in an IgA-VCAbased screening protocol may lead to a significant improvement in accuracy of screening with only a limited increase in cost. Although the widely used anti-early antigen IgA antibody marker may serve a similar purpose of eliminating an appreciable proportion of false-positive IgA-VCA results, its sensitivity in detecting NPC is only ϳ70% (1,10,12 ). Thus, its combination with IgA-VCA in the screening setting may lead to missing an appreciable proportion of true cancers.…”

Treatment of cancer of the head and neck

“…7 An association between Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and nasopharyngeal carcinomas has been suggested by the high incidence of elevated EBV titers in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma. 8 Many head and neck squamous carcinomas are preceded by various precan-cerous lesions. Such lesions may present in the form of leukoplakia or erythroplakia.…”

Haplotypes of Human Leukocyte Antigens among Patients with Nasopharyngeal Cancer in Greece

“…Frequencies of HLA-A3 and -B5 antigens were increased among North African NPC patients [3], but this increase was found to be not signifi cant. In German NPC patients HLA-A3 and -B5 antigens have been observed in increased numbers [18], while in other Caucasians no association has been reported [12,22], However, in most of these studies only the HLA phe notypes of the patients were examined.…”

“…Environmental etiological agents for NPC (e.g. Epstein-Barr virus, some constituents of preserved foods) have been already proposed [3,22], In this report, we describe the results of an immunogenetic study in a small group of NPC patients mainly residing in northern Greece. The main objectives of this preliminary report were, firstly, to evaluate any associa tions between MHC antigens and/or haplotypes with NPC and, secondly, to define antigens inducing protec tion or susceptibility to the disease.…”