Prevalence of Epstein Barr Virus in biopsy specimens of nasopharyngeal carcinoma from Serbian patients

The development of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is the result of interaction between Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) and many non-viral factors. The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of EBV in NPC biopsies from Serbian patients and to investigate the correlation between EBV presence and demographic, anamnestic and clinical data. Ninety-three tissue blocks were included. For detection of EBV DNA, the C terminus of the LMP1 gene was amplified by nested-PCR. Twenty-eight biopsies were EBV-DNA-positive (30.1%), with a statistically significant difference in EBV DNA presence between geographical regions (p=0.02) and between the stages of tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) (p=0.02). A correlation was also found with the presence of EBV DNA and smoking (p=0.02). The correlation of EBV DNA presence, with or without smoking and the promising outcome of the disease was statistically significant (p=0.02; p=0.01). The EBV DNA findings from this study confirm the role of EBV in NPC carcinogenesis, and show the different distribution among TNM stages and correlation between the virus and outcome of disease. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 175073