Roles of Three Epstein-Barr Virus Antibodies in the Screening of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Objective To investigate the association between Epstein-Barr virus(EBV)and nasopharyngeal carcinoma(NPC)and to evaluate the roles of EBV antibodies Rta-IgG,VCA-IgA,and EA-IgA in the screening of NPC. Methods The related literature was retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection.The publication output,keyword co-occurrence,and country/region collaboration were analyzed with VOSviewer,CiteSpace,and Excel.A total of 402 NPC patients,915 individuals with nasal symptoms,and 27 395 healthy participants undergoing physical examination in Xiangya Hospital,The Second Xiangya Hospital,and The Third Xiangya Hospital were enrolled.Serum Rta-IgG,VCA-IgA,and EA-IgA levels were measured by ELISA,and their diagnostic performance for NPC was assessed by receiver operating characteristic curves.Inter-group differences were compared through the χ² test. Results The research on EBV-NPC was highly productive.The top three keywords by frequency were nasopharyngeal carcinoma,Epstein-Barr virus,and cancer.China was the leading contributor.In the NPC cohort,the diagnostic sensitivities of Rta-IgG,VCA-IgA,and EA-IgA were 76.12%,83.58%,and 62.19%,respectively,which were higher than those in the other two groups(all P<0.001).VCA-IgA showed the highest sensitivity(83.58%),whereas EA-IgA exhibited the best specificity(97.41%).The three antibodies showed high negative prediction values,which were 99.65%,99.76%,and 99.45%.Combined testing of Rta-IgG,VCA-IgA,and EA-IgA increased the sensitivity to 99.50%. Conclusions The EBV-NPC link remains a major research focus.Serum Rta-IgG,VCA-IgA,and EA-IgA levels are clinically valuable for NPC diagnosis,and their combined detection significantly improves the screening efficiency.