SERO-EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDIES OF EPSTEIN-BARR VIRUS (EBV) INFECTION BY TESTING ANTIBODIES AGAINST EBV SPECIFIC DNASE (EDAb) AS A METHOD FOR EARLY DETECTION OF NASOPHARYNGEAL CARCINOMA (NPC)

In 1987, a mass survey of EDAb was carried out in Sihui county of Gunagdong Province (the highest incidence area of NPC in China) and the city of Guangzhou using the methods previously established by our lab. In order to study the correlation between EDAb level and NPC, the titre of DEAh and their distribution in sera from 430 patients with NPC and 5030 normal persons were detected. It was found that the AER (level of EDAb was represented by the anti-enzyme rate) of NPC patients gave a negative skew distribution and the Md=65.3% while the natural population (30-59 years old) gave a serious positive skew distribution and the Md is 7.9%. According to the pattern of EDAb distribution curve of 430 NPC patients and 2060 natural population. AER≥30% was defined as a cut-off point between EDAb positive and negative. Using this value we got a rate of 90.7% (3901430) positive diagnosis in NPC patients, while in natural population the positive rate was 3.3% (68/2060), and in the IgA/VCA positive (1:5) normal person the positive rate was 6.0% (411681). As to the other tumors including head and neck tumors the positive rate was 3.4% (71204), similar to the natural population. After a period of 62 months of follow-up surveillance, 15 of 224 EDAb positive normal persons found in the mass survey were diagnosed as NPC by histopathological examination. While in 4806 EDAb negative normal person only one case NPC patient was found in this period. 60% of these patients were diagnosed in their early stage of NPC. From these patients it was found that EDAb could appear in the sera of the patients as early as 62 months before NPC was definitely diagnosed. 2 of these patients were shown IgA/VCA negative and EDAb positive in mass survey. This suggested that in some of the precancerous patients EDAb could appear earlier than IgA/VCA. The signifi-cance of the sera EDAb positivity of normal person was discussed.