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Japanese researchers found an antigen in cells from a patient with an unusual leukaemia, then found antibodies to it in every one of 44 patients with that leukaemia and in a quarter of healthy adults where the disease clusters.
Yorio Hinuma and colleagues used indirect immunofluorescence to detect an antigen in the cytoplasm of 1 to 5 per cent of cells of MT-1, a T-cell line from a patient with adult T-cell leukaemia, a disease endemic in southwestern Japan. The antigen was absent from six other T-cell lines, seven B-cell lines and four non-T non-B lines, and did not cross-react with Epstein-Barr virus, herpes simplex virus, cytomegalovirus, varicella-zoster virus, herpesvirus saimiri or Marek disease virus. Culturing with 5-iodo-2'-deoxyuridine increased the proportion of antigen-bearing cells roughly fivefold, and electron microscopy of those cultures showed extracellular type C virus particles.
The serology is what made the case. Antibodies against the antigen were found in all 44 patients with adult T-cell leukaemia examined, in 32 of 40 patients with malignant T-cell lymphomas resembling it, in 26 per cent of healthy adults from endemic areas, and in only a few of those from non-endemic areas.
Together with Poiesz's isolation of the virus in the United States the year before, this established human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 as the cause of adult T-cell leukaemia/lymphoma, a disease the OnCo corpus does not yet hold as a record of its own.
The seroepidemiology that tied a virus to a cancer across a population rather than in one patient. It is the reason blood donations are screened for human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 in Japan and elsewhere, and the reason breastfeeding advice is part of cancer prevention in endemic regions.
The Japanese standard regimen for aggressive adult T-cell leukaemia/lymphoma rests on this trial. Three-year overall survival of 24 per cent with the better arm is the plainest statement of how much room remains, and is why allogeneic transplantation, mogamulizumab and antiviral approaches have all been pursued since.
The first human retrovirus, and the start of the line of work that identified HIV three years later. For lymphoma it means that adult T-cell leukaemia/lymphoma has a known, transmissible, preventable cause, and that screening blood donors and advising on breastfeeding in endemic areas are cancer prevention measures.
Shares VCAP-AMP-VECP compared with biweekly CHOP for adult T-cell leukemia-lymphoma: Japan Clinical Oncology Group Study JCOG9801, JCOG9801, Peripheral T-cell lymphomas (including cutaneous T-cell lymphoma), Lymphoma roadmap: from a jaw tumour in Uganda and the first human cancer virus to gene-expression subtypes, PET-adapted chemotherapy, CAR-T cells, bispecific antibodies and the genetics-directed trials now recruiting and the tag lymphoma-evidence.
Shares Prevention we already have is not deployed, Lymphoma roadmap: from a jaw tumour in Uganda and the first human cancer virus to gene-expression subtypes, PET-adapted chemotherapy, CAR-T cells, bispecific antibodies and the genetics-directed trials now recruiting, Most of the world has almost no cancer care, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (all types) and the tag lymphoma-evidence.
Shares Lymphoma roadmap: from a jaw tumour in Uganda and the first human cancer virus to gene-expression subtypes, PET-adapted chemotherapy, CAR-T cells, bispecific antibodies and the genetics-directed trials now recruiting, Most of the world has almost no cancer care, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (all types) and the tag lymphoma-evidence.
Shares Peripheral T-cell lymphomas (including cutaneous T-cell lymphoma), Lymphoma roadmap: from a jaw tumour in Uganda and the first human cancer virus to gene-expression subtypes, PET-adapted chemotherapy, CAR-T cells, bispecific antibodies and the genetics-directed trials now recruiting, Most of the world has almost no cancer care, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (all types) and the tag lymphoma-evidence.
Shares Peripheral T-cell lymphomas (including cutaneous T-cell lymphoma), Lymphoma roadmap: from a jaw tumour in Uganda and the first human cancer virus to gene-expression subtypes, PET-adapted chemotherapy, CAR-T cells, bispecific antibodies and the genetics-directed trials now recruiting, Most of the world has almost no cancer care, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (all types) and the tag lymphoma-evidence.
Shares Peripheral T-cell lymphomas (including cutaneous T-cell lymphoma), Lymphoma roadmap: from a jaw tumour in Uganda and the first human cancer virus to gene-expression subtypes, PET-adapted chemotherapy, CAR-T cells, bispecific antibodies and the genetics-directed trials now recruiting, Most of the world has almost no cancer care, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (all types) and the tag lymphoma-evidence.
Shares Lymphoma roadmap: from a jaw tumour in Uganda and the first human cancer virus to gene-expression subtypes, PET-adapted chemotherapy, CAR-T cells, bispecific antibodies and the genetics-directed trials now recruiting, Most of the world has almost no cancer care, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (all types) and the tag lymphoma-evidence.
Shares Lymphoma roadmap: from a jaw tumour in Uganda and the first human cancer virus to gene-expression subtypes, PET-adapted chemotherapy, CAR-T cells, bispecific antibodies and the genetics-directed trials now recruiting, Most of the world has almost no cancer care, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (all types) and the tag lymphoma-evidence.