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Prospective study of cytomegalovirus serostatus and prostate cancer risk in the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial

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Abstract

Purpose

To investigate serologic evidence of infection by cytomegalovirus (CMV), a herpesvirus with known oncogenic potential that has been detected in malignant prostate tissue, in relation to prostate cancer (PCa) risk in a large case–control study nested in the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT).

Methods

Cases were men with a confirmed diagnosis of PCa after visit 2 (n = 614), and controls were men not diagnosed with PCa during the trial who also had a negative end-of-study biopsy (n = 616). Controls were frequency-matched to cases by age, treatment arm, and family history of PCa. Sera from visit 2 were tested for CMV IgG antibodies.

Results

No association was observed between CMV serostatus and PCa risk (adjusted CMV seroprevalence = 67.9 % for cases and 65.2 % for controls, odds ratio = 1.13, 95 % CI 0.89–1.45).

Conclusions

Considering our null findings in the context of the full CMV literature, CMV infection, as measured by serostatus, does not appear to increase PCa risk.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the technicians from the PCPT Pathology and Genotyping Core directed by M. Scott Lucia for their efforts in providing serum specimens for testing, the Baltimore City Health Department (Dr. Emily J. Erbelding, Vincent Marsiglia, and Sarah Norman) for generous provision of quality control serum specimens, Patricia Agreda for CMV antibody testing, Ratna Pakpahan for preparation of CMV antibody data, and Dr. Catherine M. Tangen for general statistical discussions. This project was funded by research grants P01 CA108964 (Biology of the PCPT), P30 CA054174, and U01 CA37429 from the Division of Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, and the Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation. The content of this work is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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Correspondence to Siobhan Sutcliffe.

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Sutcliffe, S., Till, C., Gaydos, C.A. et al. Prospective study of cytomegalovirus serostatus and prostate cancer risk in the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial. Cancer Causes Control 23, 1511–1518 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-012-0028-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-012-0028-5

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