Recommendations for Epstein-Barr virus-based screening for nasopharyngeal cancer in high- and intermediate-risk regions.

Lam, W K Jacky; King, Ann D; Miller, Jacob A; Liu, Zhiwei; Yu, Kelly J; Chua, Melvin L K; Ma, Brigette B Y; Chen, Ming Yuan et al. · J Natl Cancer Inst · 2023

expert_opinion · Level V

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Abstract

A meeting of experts was held in November 2021 to review and discuss available data on performance of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-based approaches to screen for early stage nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and methods for the investigation and management of screen-positive individuals. Serum EBV antibody and plasma EBV DNA testing methods were considered. Both approaches were found to have favorable performance characteristics and to be cost-effective in high-risk populations. In addition to endoscopy, use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to investigate screen-positive individuals was found to increase the sensitivity of NPC detection with minimal impact on cost-effectiveness of the screening program.

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