Circulating Epstein-Barr virus DNA in the serum of patients with gastric carcinoma

Purpose: We investigated the detectability of EBV DNA in the serum of gastr ic carcinoma patients in Hong Kong, Previous data have shown that approxima tely 10% of gastric carcinomas in Hong Kong are associated with EBV, Experimental Design: We recruited 51 patients with gastric carcinoma, 30 pa tients with gastritis, and 197 apparently healthy controls. For gastric car cinoma patients, blood samples were obtained before surgery. After surgery, the resected tumor samples from the cancer cases were subjected to in situ hybridization for small EBV-encoded RNA (EBER), Serum EBV DNA in all cases was measured by real-time quantitative PCR. Results: Serum EBV DNA was detectable in 5 of 5 (100%) EBER-positive gastri c carcinoma cases (median concentration, 1063 copies/ml), in 13 of 14 (93%) EBER-negative gastric carcinoma cases with EBER-positive infiltrating lymp hocytes (median concentration, 50 copies/ml), and in 0 of 32 (0%) EBER-nega tive cases. In the nontumor controls, serum EBV DNA was detectable in 7 of 30 (23%) gastritis cases (median concentration, 50 copies/ml) and in 7 of 1 97 (3.6%) apparently healthy individuals (median concentration, 0 copy/ml). Conclusions: Our data indicate that serum EBV DNA reflects tumoral EBER sta tus and opens up the possibility that circulating EBV DNA may be used as a tumor marker for the EBER-positive gastric carcinomas. The biological and c linical significance of the presence of low levels of circulating EBV DNA i n the minority of gastritis patients and healthy individuals remains to be elucidated.