Investigations on the Possible Role of Herpes Virus in Human Primary Lung Cancer

The sera of 65 patients with primary lung cancer and matched controls were tested for Herpes simplex type-1 (HSV-1) and type-2 (HSV-2) complement fixing, and neutralizing antibody. The frequency of HSV-1 neutralizing antibody was significantly higher (P<0.01) in pulmonary carcinoma patients than matched controls. There was no difference in complement fixing antibody titers among test groups. Analysis partitioning of the viral neutralization titers in relation to age, established that the 40-49 and 70-79 age groups in the pulmonary carcinoma series possessed significantly higher titers. It is suggested that further studies correlating smoking histories with latent HSV-1 infections might establish a co-carcinogenic role for these two agents in human primary lung cancer.In order to determine whether tobacco tars combined with human herpesvirus were capable of inducing neoplastic changes in embryonic cell in vitro, numerous attempts were made to oncogenically transform germfree rat embryo fibroblasts by exposing them to several combinations of ultraviolet inactivated HSV-1 and tobacco tar condensates. In a two-year period several morphologically transformed cell cultures were obtained following such treatments, but they were not oncogenic in rats.These studies were completed prior to the observation of others that many rodent cells in culture are resistant to oncogenic transformation by potent carcinogens.