Case-case comparison of smoking and alcohol risk associations with Epstein-Barr virus-positive gastric cancer.

Helicobacter pylori is the primary cause of gastric cancer. However, monoclonal Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) nucleic acid is also present in up to 10% of these tumors worldwide. EBV prevalence is increased with male sex, nonantral localization and surgically disrupted anatomy.

Improved survival of gastric cancer with tumour Epstein-Barr virus positivity: an international pooled analysis.

Background And Objective: About 9% of gastric carcinomas have Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in the tumour cells, but it is unclear whether viral presence influences clinical progression. We therefore examined a large multicentre case series for the association of tumour EBV status with survival after gastric cancer diagnosis, accounting for surgical stage and other prognostic factors.

Methods: We combined individual-level data on 4599 gastric cancer patients diagnosed between 1976 and 2010 from 13 studies in Asia (n=8), Europe (n=3), and Latin America (n=2).

EGFR and HER2 genomic gain in recurrent non-small cell lung cancer after surgery: impact on outcome to treatment with gefitinib and association with EGFR and KRAS mutations in a Japanese cohort.

Background: Sensitivity to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and frequency of activation mutations in EGFR is lower in Caucasian than Asian non small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Increased EGFR gene copy numbers evaluated by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) has been reported as predictor of clinical benefit from EGFR-TKIs in Caucasian NSCLC patients. This study was carried out to verify whether EGFR FISH had similar performance in Japanese patients.