An Analysis of the Relationship Between Clinical Pathology and Serological Level of EB Virus VCA-IgA Antibody in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Summary

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is one of the common malignant tumors in Fujian Province, China. By using the indirect immunoperoxidase labelled antibody method, the antibody level of 363 cases 5 and the relationship to histopathological changes were studied. Among these cases, 127 were untreated NPC with a positive rate for IgA anti-VCA antibody of 91.3% (GMT 1:33). Forty two of the 363 cases had other tumors of head and neck with a positive rate of 7.1% (GMT 1:8) while none of 53 cases of chronic nasopharyngitis and 141 cases of normal individual had detectable antibody. Since this assay has a significant specificity, it is used as an effective serological diagnostic tool for NPC in our clinic.

The serological level of VCA-IgA antibody in untreated NPC cases correlated with the duration of disease, the size of the metastatic lymph node, the proportion of NPC parenchyma and the degree of plasma cell infiltration in Tumor tissues. No significant relationship was found between the VCA-IgA antibody level and the sex. age, original site of the tumor, mode of tumor growth and the relationship between HLA-type and survival in this patient population.