BACKGROUND: Human herpesvirus type 8 (HHV-8), a gamma herpesvirus associated with Kaposi's sarcoma, has been proposed as a candidate risk factor for prostate cancer (PCa) because of its detection in benign and malignant prostate specimens, and its relation with histologic prostatic inflammation. We investigated the possible relation between pre-diagnostic HHV-8 infection and PCa risk in a case-control study sampled from the placebo arm of the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial.
METHODS: We defined cases as men with a confirmed diagnosis of PCa after visit 2 (n = 315) and controls as men not diagnosed with PCa during the trial who also had a negative end-of-study prostate biopsy (n = 315). We tested sera from visit 2 for IgG antibodies against HHV-8 using a monoclonal antibody-enhanced immunofluorescence assay against multiple lytic HHV-8 antigens.
RESULTS: The adjusted seroprevalence of HHV-8 infection was 11.6 % for cases and 11.0 % for controls (p = 0.81). No association was observed between HHV-8 seropositivity and PCa risk (OR 1.06, 95 % CI 0.65-1.76).
CONCLUSION: Our findings of a null association between HHV-8 seropositivity and PCa risk do not support an association between HHV-8 infection and PCa development, consistent with the general tendency of the epidemiologic literature to date.
Written by:
Sutcliffe S,1 Till C, Jenkins FJ, Gaydos CA, Goodman PJ, Hoque AM, Hsing AW, Thompson IM, Nelson WG, De Marzo AM, Platz EA Are you the author?
1Division of Public Health Sciences, Department of Surgery, The Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 S. Euclid Ave., Box 8100, Rm. 208S, St. Louis, MO, 63110, USA,
Reference: Cancer Causes Control. 2014 Oct 31. (Epub ahead of print)
doi: 10.1007/s10552-014-0480-5
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 25359302