Nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Indonesia has a low prevalence of the 30-base pair deletion of Epstein-Barr virus latent membrane protein 1.

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is associated with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), one of the highest incidence of tumors in Indonesia. EBV infection is ubiquitous around the world, but NPC occurs with a remarkable geographic distribution. This phenomenon suggests that there are subtypes of EBV, some of which may have greater tumorigenic potential. The latent membrane protein 1 (LMP 1) gene encoded by EBV is tumorigenic due to its ability to transform rodent fibroblast. It was originally shown that the LMP 1 gene from NPC of Chinese patients harbors a deletion of 30-bp in the carboxyl terminal of the gene. However, the deletion is also present in healthy control and in other EBV-positive tumors. We examined the polymorphism of LMP 1 in 56 tumor biopsies of Indonesian patients with NPC and identified low prevalence of the 30-bp deletion of LMP 1. Sequence analysis showed unique mutations of LMP 1 which suggests that strain-specific variations of EBV are found in Indonesia. The low frequency of 30-bp deletion in the country with high prevalence of NPC indicates that the deletion may represent a geographic polymorphism rather than a predisposing factor in the development of NPC.