{"title":"Patterns of failure and prognosis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma according to Epstein-Barr virus DNA status.","authors":"Lin-Feng Guo, Guan-Zhong Lu, Zhen-Zhen Lu, Yi-Feng Yu, San-Gang Wu","doi":"10.1186/s13027-024-00631-1","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>To investigate the patterns of failure and prognosis in recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (rmNPC) according to Epstein-Barr virus-DNA (EBV-DNA) status.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We included NPC patients who were diagnosed with locoregional recurrence (LRR) and/(or) distant metastasis (DM) between January 2017 and June 2024. Receiver operating characteristic analysis, Chi-square test, Wilcoxon rank sum test, Kaplan-Meier method, and Multivariate Cox regression analyses were used for statistical analysis.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>This study involved 108 patients, including 105 (97.2%) who had EBV-DNA detectable at the initial diagnosis of NPC. Regarding progression patterns, 34 patients (31.5%) experienced only LRR, while 60 patients (55.6%) had only DM. LRR followed by DM was observed in 5 (4.6%) patients, DM followed by LRR occurred in 2 (1.8%) patients, and both LRR and DM were presented simultaneously in 7 (6.5%) patients. EBV-DNA positivity rates significantly differed between LRR and DM patients, at 76.9% and 97.1% respectively (P = 0.003). A significant difference was also observed in EBV-DNA levels, with a median level of 413 copies/mL for LRR and 6,550 copies/mL for DM (P < 0.001). While the EBV-DNA positivity rate did not differ significantly between oligometastatic disease and polymetastatic disease (P = 0.493), the levels were significantly elevated in the polymetastatic disease group than the oligometastatic disease group (P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that liver metastasis (P = 0.012) and EBV-DNA levels ≥ 3,525 copies/mL at progression (P = 0.009) independently correlated with poorer overall survival.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our study provides substantial evidence linking higher EBV-DNA levels with disease failure patterns and identifies liver metastasis and EBV-DNA levels at disease progression as independent prognostic factors for poorer overall survival in rmNPC patients.</p>","PeriodicalId":13568,"journal":{"name":"Infectious Agents and Cancer","volume":"20 1","pages":"6"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11796219/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Infectious Agents and Cancer","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13027-024-00631-1","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"IMMUNOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Purpose: To investigate the patterns of failure and prognosis in recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (rmNPC) according to Epstein-Barr virus-DNA (EBV-DNA) status.
Methods: We included NPC patients who were diagnosed with locoregional recurrence (LRR) and/(or) distant metastasis (DM) between January 2017 and June 2024. Receiver operating characteristic analysis, Chi-square test, Wilcoxon rank sum test, Kaplan-Meier method, and Multivariate Cox regression analyses were used for statistical analysis.
Results: This study involved 108 patients, including 105 (97.2%) who had EBV-DNA detectable at the initial diagnosis of NPC. Regarding progression patterns, 34 patients (31.5%) experienced only LRR, while 60 patients (55.6%) had only DM. LRR followed by DM was observed in 5 (4.6%) patients, DM followed by LRR occurred in 2 (1.8%) patients, and both LRR and DM were presented simultaneously in 7 (6.5%) patients. EBV-DNA positivity rates significantly differed between LRR and DM patients, at 76.9% and 97.1% respectively (P = 0.003). A significant difference was also observed in EBV-DNA levels, with a median level of 413 copies/mL for LRR and 6,550 copies/mL for DM (P < 0.001). While the EBV-DNA positivity rate did not differ significantly between oligometastatic disease and polymetastatic disease (P = 0.493), the levels were significantly elevated in the polymetastatic disease group than the oligometastatic disease group (P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that liver metastasis (P = 0.012) and EBV-DNA levels ≥ 3,525 copies/mL at progression (P = 0.009) independently correlated with poorer overall survival.
Conclusions: Our study provides substantial evidence linking higher EBV-DNA levels with disease failure patterns and identifies liver metastasis and EBV-DNA levels at disease progression as independent prognostic factors for poorer overall survival in rmNPC patients.
期刊介绍:
Infectious Agents and Cancer is an open access, peer-reviewed online journal that encompasses all aspects of basic, clinical, epidemiological and translational research providing an insight into the association between chronic infections and cancer.
The journal welcomes submissions in the pathogen-related cancer areas and other related topics, in particular:
• HPV and anogenital cancers, as well as head and neck cancers;
• EBV and Burkitt lymphoma;
• HCV/HBV and hepatocellular carcinoma as well as lymphoproliferative diseases;
• HHV8 and Kaposi sarcoma;
• HTLV and leukemia;
• Cancers in Low- and Middle-income countries.
The link between infection and cancer has become well established over the past 50 years, and infection-associated cancer contribute up to 16% of cancers in developed countries and 33% in less developed countries.
Preventive vaccines have been developed for only two cancer-causing viruses, highlighting both the opportunity to prevent infection-associated cancers by vaccination and the gaps that remain before vaccines can be developed for other cancer-causing agents. These gaps are due to incomplete understanding of the basic biology, natural history, epidemiology of many of the pathogens that cause cancer, the mechanisms they exploit to cause cancer, and how to interrupt progression to cancer in human populations. Early diagnosis or identification of lesions at high risk of progression represent the current most critical research area of the field supported by recent advances in genomics and proteomics technologies.