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. 2019 Feb 26:14:7.
doi: 10.1186/s13027-019-0223-z. eCollection 2019.

The prevalence of EBV and CMV DNA in epithelial ovarian cancer

Kasper Ingerslev  1 , Estrid Høgdall  2 , Wojciech Skovrider-Ruminski  2 , Tine Henrichsen Schnack  3 , Marianne Lidang  2 , Claus Høgdall  3 , Jan Blaakaer  1
Affiliations

The prevalence of EBV and CMV DNA in epithelial ovarian cancer

Kasper Ingerslev et al. Infect Agent Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: The underlying cause of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is unknown. It has been theorized that infectious agents could contribute to ovarian tumorigenesis.

Objective: To investigate the potential role of oncogenic viral infection in EOC, we examined the prevalence of Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) DNA and cytomegalovirus (CMV) DNA in EOC tissue samples.

Methods: Formalin-fixed, paraffin-imbedded (FFPE) tumor tissue samples from 198 patients included in the Danish Pelvic Mass Study were studied: 163 with serous adenocarcinomas, 15 with endometrioid adenocarcinomas, 11 with mucinous adenocarcinomas, and nine with clear-cell carcinomas. For controls in the EBV analysis, we used 176 tissue samples from patients diagnosed with benign mucinous cystadenomas. EBV and CMV genotyping was performed by real-time polymerase chain reaction with CMV and EBV CE-IVD approved kits. In-situ hybridization (ISH) was performed on the EBV positive samples.

Results: Sufficient DNA material was obtained in 191 and 174 tissue samples from cases and controls, respectively. Ten of 191 case samples (5.2%) and one of 174 control samples (0.5%) were positive for EBV DNA (P value = 0.011). CMV DNA was detected in only one case sample (0.5%). ISH confirmed that three of the samples were of stromal origin, while the remaining seven tested negative for EBV.

Conclusions: This study is the first to demonstrate a higher prevalence of EBV DNA in tissue samples from patients with EOC than in a benign control group. However, the cellular origin of seven of the samples could not be determined by ISH analysis. Our study did not support an association between CMV and EOC.

Keywords: Cytomegalovirus; Epithelial ovarian cancer; Epstein-Barr virus; Viral carcinogenesis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The Danish Ethical Committee approved the study protocol (KF01–227/03 and KF01–143/04, H-3-2010-022).The authors declare that they have no competing interests.Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Inclusion of case patients. EOC Epithelial ovarian cancer
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