[The clinical significance of serum Epstein-Barr virus-determined nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1)/latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) assay in patients with nasal type extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma].

OBJECTIVE

To explore the clinical significance of the serum Epstein-Barr virus-determined nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1)/latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) in patients with extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type (ENKL).

METHODS

The serum EBNA1 and LMP1 were detected by real-time PCR in 36 ENKL patients hospitalized in Beijing Tongren Hospital from August 2010 to August 2013. Twenty healthy volunteers were recruited as controls.

RESULTS

The median serum EBNA1 was 1.9×10(4) (ranged from 0 to 11.0×10(4)) copies/µl in ENKL patients and 8.0 (ranged from 0 to 43.8) copies/µl in healthy volunteers. The median serum LMP1 was 3.9×10(3) (ranged from 118.3 to 24.0×10(3)) copies/µl in ENKL patients and 3.3 (ranged from 0 to 33.3) copies/µl in healthy volunteers. Both EBNA1 and LMP1 were higher in ENKL patients than healthy volunteers (all P < 0.01). The median EBNA1 and LMP1 in ENKL patients posttreatment were 1.0×10(3) (ranged from 0 to 2.0 × 10(3)) copies/µl and 300.8 (ranged from 0 to 825.7) copies/µl respectively, which were both significantly decreased than pretreatment (all P < 0.05). The EBNA1 and LMP1 were decreased in effective treatment group versus ineffective treatment group (P < 0.05). The serum EBNA1 and LMP1 were positively correlated with lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) level (r = 0.364,0.546; P = 0.040,0.012).

CONCLUSIONS

(1) The measurement of EBNA1/LMP1 may be useful in evaluating the therapeutic effect. (2) The serum EBNA1/LMP1 may reflect the tumor load in ENKL patients.