COMPLEMENT-FIXATION ANTIBODIES TO ADENOVIRUS-ASSOCIATED VIRUSES, ADENOVIRUSES, CYTOMEGALOVIRUSES AND HERPES SIMPLEX VIRUSES IN PATIENTS WITH TUMORS AND IN CONTROL INDIVIDUALS1

Abstract

Sprecher-Goldberger, S. (Institut Pasteur du Brabant, 1040 Brussels, Belgium), L. Thiry, N. Lefébvre, D. Dekegel and F. de Halleux. Complement-fixation antibodies to adenovirus-associated viruses, cytomegaloviruses and herpes simplex viruses in patients with tumors and in control individuals. Amer J Epidem 94: 351–358, 1971.—Complement-fixation (CF) antibodies to adenovirus-associated virus type 3 (AAV3) were found in 15% of 337 patients with tumors in contrast to 34% of 268 control individuals. The prevalence of AAV1 and AAV2 antibodies was nearly the same in both groups. In tumor patients, CF antibodies to adenoviruses were present in 54% of the sera with AAV2 antibodies and only in 29% of the sera without these antibodies, with no significant difference in the control group (37 and 34%). In addition, 46 cases of patients with cervical cancer significantly differed from their matched controls by a high prevalence of adenovirus antibodies in sera without AAV3 antibodies, a feature which was not found in 50 cases of breast cancer. In all adult tumor patients, CF antibodies to cytomegaloviruses were present in 55% of the sera with AAV3 antibodies and 33% of sera without these antibodies (p < 0.01) while the respective figures were 43 and 31% (0.2 > p > 0.1) in the controls. CF antibodies to herpes simplex virus did not show significant associations with AAV antibodies. Thus, in cancer patients, the epidemiology of AAV2 is different from that of AAV3, with a non-random association between antibodies to these viruses and those to adenoviruses and cytomegaloviruses.