Epstein-Barr Virus Antibody Response Patterns in Endemic and Nonendemic Cases of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma.

Argirion, Ilona; Babi, Aisha; Simon, Julia; Waterboer, Tim; Hsu, Wan-Lun; Chen, Chien-Jen; Yu, Kelly J; Pring, Miranda et al. · J Infect Dis · 2026

case_control · Level III

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Abstract

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) causes most nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), a malignancy endemic in certain regions, presenting with nonspecific symptoms and lacking a robust minimally invasive biomarker. To assess previously developed multiplex Luminex assay EBV antibody signatures in a nonendemic population, we analyzed and compared 98 NPC sera and 142 matched controls from the nonendemic Head and Neck 5000 clinical cohort against an endemic Taiwan case-control cohort. All models, except the 2-antibody IgA panel, performed similarly, achieving 90%-99% accuracy in identifying EBV-positive NPC. Our results showed that EBV antibody panels can accurately define EBV-positive NPC regardless of endemicity.

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