1.Prevalence of Epstein-Barr virus infection in individuals with nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Malaysia: The first systematic review and meta-analysis
Engku Abd Rahman, E.N.S. ; Irekeola, A.A. ; Shueb, R.H. ; Mohamud, R. ; Mat Lazim, N. ; Abdullah, B. ; Chan, Y.Y.
Tropical Biomedicine 2022;39(No.1):89-98
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) was the first herpesvirus associated to human malignancies. Despite
the well-known association between EBV and malignancies, the prevalence of EBV infection
in Malaysians with malignancies is unknown. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic
Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) was used to conduct a systematic review and metaanalysis of published data in this study. Studies reporting the occurrence of EBV infection in
Malaysian malignancy patients were searched in electronic databases like PubMed, Scopus,
ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar without year or language constraints. The study protocol
was filed in PROSPERO (CRD42021273769). A total of 21 studies were included, with 1,036 EBV
infection cases among 2,078 malignancy patients. The random-effects model was used to
produce summary estimates. The pooled prevalence of EBV infection in Malaysians with
malignancy was 36.3% (95% CI, 20.3 – 56.2). When the prevalence estimates were stratified by
malignancy type, nasopharyngeal carcinoma has the highest prevalence (90.5%), followed
by lymphoma (23.4%), and gastric carcinoma (10.0%). Male patients had a higher cases
prevalence and most patients were above the age of 40. In Malaysia, many malignancies are
increasingly linked to EBV infection. Screening for EBV infection in malignancy patients is
therefore important to determine disease recurrence and metastases.