Prospective investigation of herpesvirus infection and risk of glioma.

ABSTRACT

Glioma is an aggressive neoplasm of the brain with poorly understood etiology. A limited number of pathogens have been examined as glioma risk factors, but data from prospective studies with infection status determined before disease are lacking. Herpesviruses comprise a large family of DNA viruses that infect humans and are linked to a range of chronic diseases. We conducted a prospective evaluation of the association between antibody to six human herpesviruses and glioma risk in the Janus Serum Bank (Janus) and the Cancer Prevention Study-II (CPS-II). In Janus and CPS-II, the risk for glioma was not related to seroprevalence of herpes simplex virus-1, varicella zoster virus, or human herpes viruses 6A or 6B. In Janus, seropositivity to either the Epstein Barr virus (EBV) EA[D] or VCAp18 antigen was associated with a lower risk of glioma (ORs 0.55 [95% CI 0.32-0.94] and 0.57 [95% CI 0.38-0.85]). This inverse association was consistent by histologic subtype and was observed for gliomas diagnosed up to two decades following antibody measurement. In Janus, seropositivity to at least one of three examined cytomegalovirus (CMV) antigens (pp150, pp52, pp28) was associated with an increased risk of nonglioblastoma (OR 2.08 [95% CI 1.07-4.03]). This association was limited to tumors diagnosed within 12 years of antibody measurement. In summary, we report evidence of an inverse association between exposure to EBV and glioma. We further report that CMV exposure may be related to a higher likelihood of the nonglioblastoma subtype.