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Better Outcomes for Ovarian Cancer Associated With the Detection of Anti-EBV TCR CDR3s: Potential Relevance to
Nandini Goel1, Madeline C Baker1, Michael T Aboujaoude1
1Department of Molecular Medicine, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA.
Objectives:
Given the ongoing challenges regarding the specific roles of viral infections in cancer etiology, or as cancer co-morbidities, this study assessed potential associations between anti-viral, T-cell receptor (TCR) complementarity domain region-3 (CDR3s), and clinical outcomes for ovarian cancer.
Methods:
TCR CDR3s were isolated from ovarian cancer specimens for a determination of which patients had anti-viral CDR3s and whether those patients had better or worse outcomes.
Results:
Analyses revealed that patients with exact matches of anti-Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) CDR3 amino acid sequences exhibited better outcomes for both overall and disease-specific survival. However, better outcomes were not observed when assessing anti-viral CDR3s representing cytomegalovirus, influenza A, or Sars-CoV-2. Due to previous occurrences of the occasional misdiagnoses of lymphoma as ovarian cancer, the frequency of anti-EBV CDR3s in lymphoma patients was determined. These frequencies were relatively high, particularly for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.
Conclusions:
These findings (i) underscore the potential value of anti-EBV immune responses in terms of patient outcomes; (ii) raise questions about the potential value of anti-EBV immunotherapies; and (iii) support further inquiry into the relationship between EBV infection and previously reported cases of ovary-resident lymphoma.
