Herpesvirus type 2 in adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix: a possible association.

Sera from 16 Jewish patients with histologically confirmed adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix (AUC) and 32 control subjects matched by age and ethnic origin were examined for herpesvirus type 1 (HSV-1) and type 2 (HSV-2) neutralizing antibodies. Titers were determined by means of the quantitative plaque reduction neutralization test on VERO cell monolayers, using HSV-1 strain VR3 and HSV-2 strain. Significantly increased levels of antibodies against both virus strains were found in the AUC patients as compared with the controls. The trends in the AUC series resembled those in a previous similar case-control study of squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix (SUC). Thus, the previously observed association between HSV-2 and SUC is true for AUC as well, despite differences in the clinical and epidemiologic characteristics of the two malignancies.