Frequency of anti-AG-4 antibody in patients with uterine cervical cancer and controls

Association of herpesvirus type-2 (HSV-2) with cervical cancer was studied from seroepidemiological viewpoint, using early antigen induced in Hep-2 cells by HSV-2 4 hr after infection (AG-4). The AG-4 antibody was assayed by the microquantitative complement fixation method. Antibody to AG-4 was respectively detected in 47% and 14% of cervical cancer patients and controls (P less than 0.001). There was a tendency of the antibody prevalence to increase with clinical stage. There was no correlation between prevalence of AG-4 antibody and that of HSV-2 neutralizing antibody estimated by the kinetics of neutralization assay, confirming previous conclusions that AG-4 differs from viral antigens involved in neutralization. Although previous study could not confirm higher prevalence of neutralizing antibody to HSV-2 in cancer patients, the present data suggest that HSV-2 is not unrelated to cervical cancer.