HTLV: epidemiology and relationship to disease

With the discovery of the human retrovirus class, an important turning point in the understanding of the process by which cancer is caused and develops in humans has been achieved. As summarized here, clinical and epidemiologic studies have documented the close association of human T-cell leukemia virus (HTLV-I) to a particular form of T-cell malignancy, adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL). Yet to be understood is the process involved in translating virus infection into malignant lymphoproliferation. Epidemiologic data suggest that this may involve a relatively long latent period between primary HTLV-I infection and subsequent malignancy risk. Presumably, identifiable co-factors will emerge to explain the trigger for malignant transformation. However, the restricted pattern of tumor phenotype suggest that this process is tightly linked to cells for which HTLV-I has a particularly strong infectious trophism. Interdisciplinary studies are currently under way in a number of laboratories to elucidate the molecular interactions in the HTLV-I associated malignant transformation process in order to correlate these with the epidemiologic data. Thus, lessons are likely to be learned from these molecular and epidemiologic studies which may provide new and important etiologic insights applicable to the prevention and therapy of cancer. Furthermore, with the recent discovery of HTLV-III, a cytopathic form of this class of human retrovirus, the likely cause of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) has been discovered. This has enormous public health implications for the detection, treatment, and prevention of this major medical epidemic. Epidemiologic studies are currently under way to identify what factors associated with virus exposure result in the full-blown AIDS syndrome. In addition, the malignancy potential of this new type of retrovirus is currently the subject of intensive investigation.