title: The seroprevalence of Kaposi's sarcoma associated herpes virus and human herpes virus-6 in pediatric patients with cancer and healthy children in a Turkish pediatric oncology center.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Many studies have tried to be establish a pathogenic role for human herpesvirus-6 and -8 (HHV-6, HHV-8) in malignant diseases, but whether these viruses plays a role in these pathologies remains unclear. HHV-6 and HHV-8 seropositivity were shown in a healthy population. There is no published data in Turkey about seroprevalence of these viruses. We aimed to determine the seroprevalence of HHV-6 and HHV-8 in pediatric cancer patients and to compare with healthy Turkish children's viral seroprevalence.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ninety-three pediatric cancer patients and 43 age-matched healthy children were included in the study. All sera were screened for antibodies to HHV-6 and HHV-8 by ELISA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  HHV-8 immunoglobulin G (IgG) was positive in 3.3% of lymphoma patients, in 4.8% of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients, in 4.8% of retinoblastoma patients and in 7% of healthy children. There was no significant difference in HHV-8 seroprevelance between these groups. HHV-6 seroprevalence was 81% in ALL patients, 70% in lymphoma group, 81% in retinoblastoma patients and 69.8% in healthy children. Although there was no significant difference in HHV-6 prevalence between healthy children and pediatric cancer patients, HHV-6 seropositivity tended to be higher in retinoblastoma patients under age of 4 years (odds ratio: 2.925).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  HHV-6 seroprevalence was higher than HHV-8 seropositivity in our study. Viral studies related HHV-6 seroprevelance in retinoblastoma patients would be useful to clarify if there is any etiological association between HHV-6 and retinoblastoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics Oncology, Ankara University Medical School, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Nurdan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tacyildiz
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics Oncology, Ankara University Medical School, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Handan Ugur
authors.initials: HU
authors.lastname: Dincaslan
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Infection Diseases, Ankara University Medical School, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Halil
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ozdemir
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics Oncology, Ankara University Medical School, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Gulsan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yavuz
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics Oncology, Ankara University Medical School, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Emel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Unal
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Immunology, Ankara University Medical School, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Aydan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ikinciogullari
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Immunology, Ankara University Medical School, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Figen
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dogu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Immunology, Ankara University Medical School, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Deniz
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Guloglu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Ankara University Medical School, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Emine
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Suskan
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Ankara University Medical School, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Kenan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kose
keywords: Herpesvirus-6; herpesvirus-8; pediatric malignancies