BMC Cancer (Jun 2023)

EBV antibody and gastric cancer risk: a population-based nested case-control study in southern China

  • Yun Du,
  • Xia Yu,
  • Ellen T. Chang,
  • Li Yin,
  • Shifeng Lian,
  • Biaohua Wu,
  • Fugui Li,
  • Zhiheng Liang,
  • Yumei Zeng,
  • Bing Chu,
  • Kuangrong Wei,
  • Jiyun Zhan,
  • Xuejun Liang,
  • Weimin Ye,
  • Mingfang Ji

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-023-10994-0
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 23, no. 1
pp. 1 – 9

Abstract

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Abstract Background We aim to clarify the controversial associations between EBV-related antibodies and gastric cancer risk. Methods We analysed the associations between serological Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen 1 immunoglobulin A (EBNA1-IgA) and viral capsid antigen immunoglobulin A (VCA-IgA) by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and the risk of gastric cancer in a nested case-control study originated from a population-based nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) screening cohort in Zhongshan, a city of southern China, including 18 gastric cancer cases and 444 controls. Conditional logistic regression was used to calculate the odds ratios (ORs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results All the sera of cases were sampled before diagnosis and the median time interval was 3.04 (range: 0.04, 7.59) years. Both increased relative optical density (rOD) values of EBNA1-IgA and VCA-IgA were associated with higher risks of gastric cancer with age adjusted ORs of 1.99 (95%CI: 1.07, 3.70) and 2.64 (95%CI: 1.33, 5.23), respectively. Each participant was further classified as high or medium/low risk based on a combination of two anti-EBV antibody levels. Participants in the high-risk group had substantially higher odds of developing gastric cancer than that in the medium/low risk group with an age adjusted OR of 6.53 (95%CI: 1.69, 25.26). Conclusions Our research reveals positive associations between EBNA1-IgA and VCA-IgA and gastric cancer risk in southern China. We thus postulate that EBNA1-IgA and VCA-IgA might appear to be potential biomarkers for gastric cancer. More research to further validate the results among diverse populations and investigate its underlying biological mechanism is needed.

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