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Frequency of Antibody to a Virus-induced Tumor-associated Antigen (AG-4) in Japanese Sera from Patients with Cervical Cancer and Controls¹

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan [T. K.]; and Departments of Laboratory Animal Medicine [J. D. C.], Biochemical and Biophysical Sciences and Microbiology [M. F. S., L. A.], Schools of Medicine, Hygiene, and Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland 21205

Microquantitative complement fixation was used to detect antibody to AG-4, a tumor-associated herpesvirus type 2-induced antigen, in sera from Japanese patients with cervical neoplasia. The prevalence of antibody to AG-4 in cervical cancer patients is 47% as compared to 7% in control women. That AG-4 antibody is less prevalent in Japanese than in American cancer patients reflects the frequency of genital herpesvirus type 2 infections in Japan. These findings confirm the association of AG-4 with cervical cancer in a proportion of Japanese patients with neoplastic disease; they implicate factors other than herpesvirus type 2 in another proportion of cervical cancer patients. The possibility that herpesvirus type 1 is one of these factors is considered.

¹ Participation under the United States-Japan cooperative Cancer Research Program, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute and the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Medicine. Financial support in part from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Medicine and in part from Contract NO-1-33345 within the Special Virus Cancer Program, National Cancer Institute, and Grant GA-160432-O1A1 is greatly appreciated.

Received 11/20/75. Accepted 2/20/76.