Detection of EBV in tumor tissue and peripheral blood by polymerase chain reaction in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
Sixty-nine untreated patients with a pathologically verified nasopharyngeal carcinoma were selected for the study of detection of EBV in nasopharyngeal tumor and peripheral blood by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Primers were directed to conserved regions of EBV genome encoding capsid protein gp 220 (Bam HI L region). A distinct 239 bp band of the PCR products indicated the presence of EBV. Results showed that EBV DNA was obtained in 91.3% of 69 NPC patients and 16.7% of 18 healthy individuals on nasopharyngeal tissue, and the difference was statistically significant between the above two groups. Nevertheless, no EBV DNA was verified from the mononuclear cells of the peripheral blood of the two groups. There was no relationship between the positive EBV DNA and the titer of serological markers. Meanwhile, the positive EBV DNA did not show any relationship with the histology type, tumor and nodal bulk, or even metastasis. Although a high positive rate of EBV DNA was detected in nasopharyngeal tumor of patients, additional environmental and genetic factors must still be considered.
Kuo
W R
WR
Department of Otolaryngology, Kaohsiung Medical College, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Chang
C S
CS
Lee
C P
CP
Lee
K W
KW
Tsai
S M
SM
Lin
K H
KH
Juan
K H
KH
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction