Longitudinal follow-up of antibody response to selected antigens of human papillomaviruses and herpesviruses in patients with invasive cervical carcinoma

A group of 21 cervical-carcinoma patients was followed longitudinally. All patients had undergone intensive radiotherapy. In the course of a more than 5-year observation period, 2 patients died of cervical cancer, I from othe r causes, 3 were lost from follow-up, and 15 survived without any signs of the disease. Sera taken before, up to 17 months after and more than 5 years after the start of therapy, were tested by ELISA for IgG antibodies reacti ve with a broad spectrum of HPV-derived antigens, glycoprotein G of HSV 2, whole virion antigen of HCMV, and a synthetic peptide corresponding to the immune-dominant region of EBNAI. The therapy was associated with a marked d ecrease in E2 and E7 antibodies in nearly all patients possessing pre exist ing antibodies; the changes in VLP antibody levels in the treated women wer e more rare and less pronounced. In the course of the observation period, s eroconversion to gG HSV2 positivity was seen in 5 patients, while, a marked increase in preexisting gG HSV2 antibodies was observed in 5 out of 7 orig inally seropositive patients. At enrollment, only 2 patients were free of H CMV antibody and only I was free of EBNAI antibody; no seroconversion relat ive to either antigen was seen during the observation period. Int. J, Cance r 86: 551-355, 2000, (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.