The clinical significance of serum Epstein-Barr virus-determined nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1)/latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) assay in patients with nasal type extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma

Abstract

To explore the clinical significance of the serum Epstein-Barr virus-determined nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1)/latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) in patients with extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type (ENKL). The serum EBNA1 and LMP1 were detected by real-time PCR in 36 ENKL patients hospitalized in Beijing Tongren Hospital from August 2010 to August 2013. Twenty healthy volunteers were recruited as controls. The median serum EBNA1 was 1.9×10(4) (ranged from 0 to 11.0×10(4)) copies/µl in ENKL patients and 8.0 (ranged from 0 to 43.8) copies/µl in healthy volunteers. The median serum LMP1 was 3.9×10(3) (ranged from 118.3 to 24.0×10(3)) copies/µl in ENKL patients and 3.3 (ranged from 0 to 33.3) copies/µl in healthy volunteers. Both EBNA1 and LMP1 were higher in ENKL patients than healthy volunteers (all P < 0.01). The median EBNA1 and LMP1 in ENKL patients posttreatment were 1.0×10(3) (ranged from 0 to 2.0 × 10(3)) copies/µl and 300.8 (ranged from 0 to 825.7) copies/µl respectively, which were both significantly decreased than pretreatment (all P < 0.05). The EBNA1 and LMP1 were decreased in effective treatment group versus ineffective treatment group (P < 0.05). The serum EBNA1 and LMP1 were positively correlated with lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) level (r = 0.364,0.546; P = 0.040,0.012). (1) The measurement of EBNA1/LMP1 may be useful in evaluating the therapeutic effect. (2) The serum EBNA1/LMP1 may reflect the tumor load in ENKL patients.