Immunologic markers for Epstein-Barr virus in the control of nasopharyngeal carcinoma and Burkitt lymphoma.

Immunologic assays have been instrumental in implicating the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) as an etiologic factor in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and Burkitt lymphoma (BL). In this report, the importance of a variety of specific assays to detect EBV in tumor biopsies and antibodies to EBV antigens in serum from patients with NPC and BL is reviewed. In both NPC and BL, the involvement of EBV appears to differ in various geographic locations. Therefore, it is necessary to be able to interpret the available immunologic laboratory tests to know if a specific patient has "EBV-associated" or "non-EBV-associated" cancer. Such information is not only relevant to etiologic studies in different populations but to identifying individuals at high risk for NPC and BL, to monitoring their response to therapy, and to determining the most appropriate forms of therapy.