Frequency of antibody to a virus-induced tumor-associated antigen (AG-4) in Japanese sera from patients with cervical cancer and controls.

Microquantitative complement fixation was used to detect antibody to AG-4, a tumor-associated herpesvirus type 2-induced antigen, in sera from Japanese patients with cervical neoplasia. The prevalence of antibody to AG-4 in cervical cancer patients is 47% as compared to 7% in control women. That AG-4 antibody is less prevalent in Japanese than in American cancer patients reflects the frequency of genital herpesvirus type 2 infections in Japan. These findings confirm the association of AG-4 with cervical cancer in a proportion of Japanese patients with neoplastic disease; they implicate factors other than herpesvirus type 2 in another proportion of cervical cancer patients. The possibility that herpesvirus type 1 is one of these factors is considered.