Antibodies against six human herpesviruses in relation to seven cancers in black South Africans: A case control study

Table 2 Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for specific cancers¹ versus all other subjects (controls)² by tertile of virus antibody measure in the controls

Virus and cancer group	Control tertiles	Cases/Controls	OR	95% CI	P-trend
HSV-1 and Oral cancer	0–5.04	23/200	1.00
	5.05–6.07	26/199	1.06	(0.6 – 2.0)
	6.08+	31/199	1.28	(0.7 – 2.3)	0.40
HSV-2 and Cervical cancer	0–1.08	11/91	1.00
	1.09–2.17	11/91	0.90	(0.4 – 2.2)
	2.18+	23/90	1.82	(0.8 – 4.1)	0.10
EBV-EBNA and non-Hodgkin lymphoma	0–3.81	24/208	1.00
	3.82–5.29	31/203	1.32	(0.7 – 2.4)
	5.30+	22/211	0.87	(0.4 – 1.8)	0.80
EBV-EBNA and Hodgkin lymphoma	0–3.87	33/211	1.00
	3.88–5.31	18/208	0.49	(0.3 – 0.96)
	5.32+	21/208	0.66	(0.3 – 1.4)	0.19
HHV-6 and Oral cancer	0–1.59	16/195	1.00
	1.60–2.43	28/194	1.83	(0.9 – 3.6)
	2.44+	31/195	2.21	(1.1 – 4.3)	0.02
HHV-6 and Hodgkin lymphoma	0–1.58	21/172	1.00
(excluding oral cancers)	1.59–2.40	17/174	0.87	(0.4 – 1.7)
	2.41+	28/172	1.32	(0.7 – 2.5)	0.39
HHV-6 and Myeloid Leukaemia	0–1.61	47/131	1.00
(excluding oral cancers)	1.62–2.59	52/134	1.16	(0.7 – 1.9)
	2.60+	26/131	0.58	(0.3 – 1.0)	0.03

¹For associations that had been reported previously.
² The control group in these analyses included all other subjects, except patients with multiple myeloma, because in general mean antibody levels did not vary significantly across disease groups after exclusion of subjects with multiple myeloma (Figure 1), and including all patients increased the power of these analyses.
All analyses are adjusted for age group, sex, day of assay and assay plate.

ISSN: 1750-9378