ABSTRACT
The ability of viruses to produce malignant disease in animals other than humans has been accepted for some time and has spurred the search for human tumor virus(es). The most likely candidate viruses, with direct association with human malignancy, have been the herpesviruses. Nonhuman herpesviruses have been clearly implicated in the induction of malignant disease in animals and include the etiologic agents of Marek’s disease of fowl (the first disease of this kind to be controlled by a vaccine), 1 the Lucké adenocarcinoma of frogs, 2 and certain T-cell lymphomas of monkeys. 3 Of the human herpesviruses, Herpes simplex virus (HSV) type II has been associated with cervical carcinoma 4,5 and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), the causative agent of infectious mononucleosis (IM), 6 with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) 7 and Burkitt’s lymphoma (BL). 8 In this chapter, the biological properties of EBV and data which support the hypothesis that EBV is, at least in part, an important link in the chain of events leading to NPC, will be discussed.
