Humoral immune responses to Epstein-Barr virus in patients with precancerous gastric lesions and gastric cancer of different histotypes

The paper presents the results of determining the concentration of specific antiviral immunoglobulins to viral antigens in blood serum of patients with gastric dysplasia (n=56) and gastric cancer (n=54), as well as the incidence of their titers depending on tumor location and histotype. In patients with precancerous gastric lesions, the increase in the IgG titer to Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) capsid antigen (VCA) and IgG to EBV early antigen (EA) in blood serum was found to be associated with enhancement of inflammatory activity. In patients with gastric cancer, high titers of IgG to VCA and IgG to EA were observed more frequently than in patients with gastric dysplasia, and the decrease in differentiation grade was followed by the increase in the concentration of IgG to EBV VCA. High titers (≥1:320) of IgG to VCA were found of patients with tumors located in the gastric body and cardia. High IgG titers to EBV VCA were shown to be associated with the presence of exophytic and ulcerated exophytic tumor growth.