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Epstein-Barr virus is absent in gastric superficial neoplastic lesions

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Abstract

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) has been associated with about 9% of all gastric carcinomas, but its role in gastric carcinogenesis remains unclear since there is lack of evidence of EBV presence in pre-neoplastic lesions of gastric mucosa. This study intends to determine the prevalence of EBV in gastric dysplasia and superficial neoplasia to clarify whether EBV infection is an early or late event in gastric cancer development. This retrospective study included a total of 242 gastric lesions from 199 consecutive patients who were referred for endoscopic resection. The histological classification of lesions includes 137 low- and high-grade dysplasia and 105 superficial carcinomas. EBV infection was investigated by EBER-ISH. Results showed that EBV was not detected in any epithelial cells of any case with dysplasia or superficial carcinomas, although we observed the presence of a small number of EBV-infected lymphocytes in 2.1% of all lesions. These results showed that EBV is not present in gastric dysplasia neither in superficial carcinomas suggesting that EBV carcinogenesis is a late event in well/moderately differentiated gastric carcinogenesis.

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Acknowledgments

Authors would like to acknowledge the support of Portuguese League Against Cancer (LPCC-NRNorte) for the development of this project.

Funding

Joana Ribeiro was granted with a PhD Scholarship (SFRH/BD/107740/2015) from FCT-Fundação para Ciência e Tecnologia.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Molecular Oncology & Viral Pathology Group (CI-IPOP), Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto, Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 4200-072, Porto, Portugal

    Joana Ribeiro, Mariana Malta, Rui Medeiros & Hugo Sousa

  2. Faculty of Medicine of Porto University, FMUP, Rua Al. Prof Hernâni Monteiro, 4200-072, Porto, Portugal

    Joana Ribeiro & Hugo Sousa

  3. Research Department, Portuguese League Against Cancer (Liga Portuguesa Contra o Cancro-Núcleo Regional do Norte), Estrada interior da Circunvalação 6657, 4200-172, Porto, Portugal

    Mariana Malta & Rui Medeiros

  4. Department of Pathology, Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto, Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 4200-072, Porto, Portugal

    Ana Galaghar & Luís Pedro Afonso

  5. Gastroenterology Department, Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto, Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 4200-072, Porto, Portugal

    Diogo Libânio, Mario Dinis-Ribeiro & Pedro Pimentel-Nunes

  6. CINTESIS - Center for Health Technology and Services Research (Centro de Investigação Médica, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Diogo Libânio, Mario Dinis-Ribeiro & Pedro Pimentel-Nunes

  7. Virology Service, Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto, Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 4200-072, Porto, Portugal

    Rui Medeiros & Hugo Sousa

  8. Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Health Sciences, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal

    Hugo Sousa

  9. ICVS/3B’s - PT Government Associate Laboratory, Braga/Guimarães, Portugal

    Hugo Sousa

Authors
  1. Joana Ribeiro
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  2. Mariana Malta
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  3. Ana Galaghar
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  4. Luís Pedro Afonso
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  5. Diogo Libânio
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  6. Rui Medeiros
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  7. Mario Dinis-Ribeiro
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  8. Pedro Pimentel-Nunes
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  9. Hugo Sousa
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Contributions

JR, HS, PPN, RM, conception and design of the study; JR and MM, EBV detection and data analysis; AG and LPA, histological review of cases and results; DL, MDR and PPN, cases selection and clinical data collection; JR, analysis and interpretation of data, drafting the manuscript, final approval; JR and HS, analysis and interpretation of data, manuscript writing; all authors were able to review the article and give final approval.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Joana Ribeiro or Hugo Sousa.

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All procedures were approved by the Ethical Committee of Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto (CES IPO 80/2014).

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Ribeiro, J., Malta, M., Galaghar, A. et al. Epstein-Barr virus is absent in gastric superficial neoplastic lesions. Virchows Arch 475, 757–762 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-019-02670-1

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