CERVICAL-CANCER AND HERPES-SIMPLEX VIRUS TYPE-2 - CASE-CONTROL STUDIES IN SPAIN AND COLOMBIA, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO IMMUNOGLOBULIN-G SUBCLASSES

Two case-control studies, including 449 histologically confirmed cases of cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia (CIN) III and 425 controls, an d 2 studies on invasive cervical cancer, involving 316 histologically confirmed cases and 330 population controls, were conducted in Colombi a and Spain to assess the role of herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) in cervical neoplasia. Antibodies to this virus were also measured in the sera of 931 husbands of cases and controls. A serological assay us ing type-specific antigens, glycoprotein C for type 1 (gC-1) and glyco protein G for type 2 (gC-2) was employed. Immunoglobulin-G (IgG) sub-c lasses, IgG(1) and IgG(2), were measured in women positive for HSV-2 a ntibodies. No increase in risk of CIN III or invasive cancer was found in women whose sera or whose husbands' sera were positive to HSV-2. H owever, compared with women negative to HSV-2, the risk of CIN III pro gressively increased with increasing levels of IgG(1). The trend was s tatistically significant in Colombia. There was also a statistically s ignificant increasing trend in risk of invasive cancer with levels of IgG(1) in Spain. The levels of IgG(3) and its ratio to IgG(1), which m ay indicate recurrent infections, were not associated with the risk of either type of cancer. When the association with IgG(1) was analyzed by human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA status, as determined by polymerase chain reaction, the trend was clearer in women whose HPV status was no t determined or in those with negative HPV DNA. These results suggest that the role of HSV-2 is merely marginal and do not support the hypot hesis that recurrent HSV-2 infections are of importance for cervical n eoplasia. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.