Clinical and pathological characterization of epstein-barr virus-associated gastric carcinomas in portugal

AIM To determine the prevalence of epstein-barr virus(eb V)-associated gastric carcinomas in the North Region of Portugal and to study its clinicopathological characteristics. METHODS We have performed a retrospective study including a total of 179 consecutive patients with gastric cancer(GC) submitted to gastrectomy during 2011 at the Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto. Clinical and pathological data was collected from individual clinical records and inserted on a database with unique codification. Tumour tissues were collected from the institutional tumour bank. eb V was detected by in situ hybridization for the detection of eb V-encoded small RNAs(ebe Rs) and eb V latent proteins(LMP1 and LMP2 A) were detected by immunohistochemistry.RESULTS The analysis showed that eb V-associated gastric carcinomas(eb Va GC) represents 8.4%(15/179) of all GC cases, with a significant differential distribution among histological types(P < 0.001): 100%(3/3) of medullary carcinomas, 100%(1/1) of adenosquamous carcinoma, 8.7%(8/92) of tubular adenocarcinomas, 8.0%(2/25) of mixed carcinomas and 2%(1/51) in poorly cohesive carcinomas. The analysis revealed a higher predominance of eb Va GC in the upper third and middle(cardia, fundus and body) of the stomach(P = 0.041), a significant lower number of regional lymph nodes invasion(P = 0.025) and a tendency for better prognosis(P = 0.222). eb V latent protein expression revealed that all eb Va GC cases were LMP1-negative, nevertheless 6 cases(40%) expressed LPM2 A, which reveals that these cases show a distinct eb V-Latency profile(latency II-like).CONCLUSION eb Va GC represents 8.4% of all GC in the North Region of Portugal. The eb V-infected patients have specific clinic-pathological features that should be further explored to develop new strategies of management and treatment.