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Updated: Aug 29, 2026

Development of Compendium for Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Published on: April 12, 2024
Epstein-Barr virus association is rare in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma
Hideo Yanai1, Atsuyoshi Hirano, Keisuke Matsusaki
1Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Yamaguchi University School of Medicine, Ube, Japan. h.yanai@yamaguchi-u.ac.jp
Background:
A critical role of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in carcinogenesis of nasopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma and gastric adenocarcinoma is strongly suspected. We analyzed the possible EBV association for Japanese squamous cell carcinoma (SCC)-dominant esophageal cancer cases.
Methods:
We retrospectively screened 36 surgically resected esophageal cancer lesions from 36 patients mainly with SCC using in situ hybridization (ISH) for EBV-encoded small RNA1 (EBER-1). EBV DNA analysis using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (Q-PCR) was performed for three recent cases.
Results:
We found no EBER-1-positive cancer cell in any tested esophageal cancer lesion. There were many EBER-1-positive tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in the basaloid SCC lesion and a small number of positive lymphocytes in the other five advanced SCC lesions (14.7% of SCC). One SCC lesion with a highcopy number of EBV DNA had EBER-1-positive lymphocytes.
Conclusions:
EBV is rarely associated with esophageal SCC, and may appear through tumorinfiltrating lymphocytes in some advanced lesions.
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