Identification of Epstein-Barr virus with real time polymerase chain reaction in tumoral tissues of patients with laryngeal carcinoma

Identification of Epstein-Barr Virus with Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction in Tumoral Tissues of Patients with Laryngeal CarcinomaIn this study, we aimed to investigate if EBV is a risk factor of laryngeal carcinoma by determination of EBV with real time PCR in tumoral tissues of patients with laryngeal carcinoma. Tumoral tissues obtained from 25 patients with laryngeal carcinoma were included to the study. We also included 17 specimens obtained from patients with non-tumoral lesions of larynx as control group. Also smoking habits, number of cigarettes comsumpted daily, total duration of smoking, alcohol consumption habits, family history, and localization and pathologic type of tumor were recorded and we investigated the relationship between these parameters and EBV positivity. After isolation of EBV DNA from tissues, amplification is done with Rotor-Gene 6000 device by Qiagen Artus EBV RG PCR kit. We could not find any relationship between EBV positivity and smoking habits, number of cigarettes comsumpted daily, total duration of smoking, alcohol consumption habits and family history. EBV positivity is significantly higher in supraglottic tumors compared with other localizations. EBV was positive in 40% of cancer patients and 47.1% of control patients. As a result, we couldn?t find any relationship between EBV positivity and laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma. We think further studies with higher numbers of samples sould be done on this subject. If a positive relationship between laryngeal carcinoma and EBV positivity could be found, there may be a great improvement in management of laryngeal carcinomas.Key words: EBV, laryngeal carcinoma, Real-Time PCR