Epstein-Barr virus-positive gastric cancer: a distinct molecular subtype of the disease?

Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical

Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil¹  Chaves, Gabriela Freitas¹  Maciel, Marina Mara¹  Mendonça, Diego Cavalheiro de¹  Santos, José Sebastião dos¹  Kazzi, Ana Izabela¹  Lima, Enaldo Melo de¹  Hospital Mater Dei, Belo Horizonte, Brazil¹  Jácome, Alexandre Andrade dos Anjos¹ 

关键词:  Stomach neoplasms;    Epstein-Barr virus infections;    Genomics;    Epigenomics;    Molecular targeted therapy;   

DOI  :  10.1590/0037-8682-0270-2015

学科分类：农业科学（综合）

来源: Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical

【 摘 要 】

Approximately 90% of the world population is infected by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). Usually, it infects B lymphocytes, predisposing them to malignant transformation. Infection of epithelial cells occurs rarely, and it is estimated that about to 10% of gastric cancer patients harbor EBV in their malignant cells. Given that gastric cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide, with a global annual incidence of over 950,000 cases, EBV-positive gastric cancer is the largest group of EBV-associated malignancies. Based on gene expression profile studies, gastric cancer was recently categorized into four subtypes; EBV-positive, microsatellite unstable, genomically stable and chromosomal instability. Together with previous studies, this report provided a more detailed molecular characterization of gastric cancer, demonstrating that EBV-positive gastric cancer is a distinct molecular subtype of the disease, with unique genetic and epigenetic abnormalities, reflected in a specific phenotype. The recognition of characteristic molecular alterations in gastric cancer allows the identification of molecular pathways involved in cell proliferation and survival, with the potential to identify therapeutic targets. These findings highlight the enormous heterogeneity of gastric cancer, and the complex interplay between genetic and epigenetic alterations in the disease, and provide a roadmap to implementation of genome-guided personalized therapy in gastric cancer. The present review discusses the initial studies describing EBV-positive gastric cancer as a distinct clinical entity, presents recently described genetic and epigenetic alterations, and considers potential therapeutic insights derived from the recognition of this new molecular subtype of gastric adenocarcinoma.Keywords: Stomach neoplasms; Epstein-Barr virus infections; Genomics; Epigenomics; Molecular targeted therapy

【 授权许可】

Unknown