Trial reportClinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research2013
An international collaboration to harmonize the quantitative plasma Epstein-Barr virus DNA assay for future biomarker-guided trials in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
Trial report in Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 75 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
75 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 177 citations in OpenAlex.
- Multiplex Epstein-Barr virus BALF2 genotyping detects high-risk variants in plasma for population screening of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.Molecular cancer · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Prognostic Factors for Overall Survival in Nasopharyngeal Cancer and Implication for TNM Staging by UICC: A Systematic Review of the Literature.Frontiers in oncology · 2021Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Trial
- Maintenance therapy improves the survival outcomes of patients with metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma responding to first-line chemotherapy: a multicentre, randomized controlled clinical study.Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology · 2023Trial
- Trial
- Prognostication of serial post-intensity-modulated radiation therapy undetectable plasma EBV DNA for nasopharyngeal carcinoma.Oncotarget · 2017Trial
- Epstein-Barr virus-targeted therapy in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology · 2015Trial
- Circulating cell-free Epstein-Barr virus DNA measurement for nasopharyngeal carcinoma: advancing towards ctDNA-guided, risk-adaptive individualized treatment.Science China. Life sciences · 2026Review
- Nasopharyngeal carcinoma: epidemiology, risk factors, signaling pathways, clinical features, diagnosis, and management.Molecular biomedicine · 2026Review
- Upper Versus Middle-Neck Involvement in TNM-9 Stage IB Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma: Implications for De-Escalation and Intensification Strategies.Cancer medicine · 2026Article
- Liquid biopsy to inform adjuvant decisions during neoadjuvant chemotherapy - a full-circle moment for nasopharyngeal cancer.Nature reviews. Clinical oncology · 2026Article
- Preliminary Findings on the Predictive Value of Hematologic Inflammatory Indices for Survival in Treatment-Naïve Non-Metastatic Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Achieving control of nasopharyngeal carcinoma: the role of Epstein-Barr virus-based screening and vaccines.Nature reviews. Clinical oncology · 2026Review
- Liquid Biopsies in Head and Neck Cancers: Recent Developments Across Biofluids, Analytes, and Molecular Features.Head & neck · 2025Review
- Application of circulating tumor DNA liquid biopsy in nasopharyngeal carcinoma: A case report and review of literature.World journal of clinical cases · 2025Article
- Asparagine deprivation enhances T cell antitumour response in patients via ROS-mediated metabolic and signal adaptations.Nature metabolism · 2025Article
- First-in-Human Clinical Trial of a Small-Molecule EBNA1 Inhibitor, VK-2019, in Patients with Epstein-Barr-Positive Nasopharyngeal Cancer, with Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Studies.Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2025Article
- Highly-multiplex detection of plasma cell-free human papillomavirus-16 DNA in oropharyngeal carcinoma.Journal of clinical virology : the official publication of the Pan American Society for Clinical Virology · 2025Article
15 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
purposePersistently elevated posttreatment plasma EBV DNA is a robust predictor of relapse in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). However, assay standardization is necessary for use in biomarker-driven trials. We conducted a study to harmonize the method between four centers with expertise in EBV DNA quantitation. EXPERIMENTAL
designPlasma samples of 40 patients with NPC were distributed to four centers. DNA was extracted and EBV DNA copy number was determined by real-time quantitative PCR (BamHI-W primer/probe). Centers used the same protocol but generated their own calibrators. A harmonization study was then conducted using the same calibrators and PCR master mix and validated with ten pooled samples.
resultsThe initial intraclass correlations (ICC) for the first 40 samples between each center and the index center were 0.62 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.39-0.78], 0.70 (0.50-0.83), and 0.59 (0.35-0.76). The largest variability was the use of different PCR master mixes and calibrators. Standardization improved ICC to 0.83 (0.5-0.95), 0.95 (0.83-0.99) and 0.96 (0.86-0.99), respectively, for ten archival frozen samples. For fresh plasma with spiked-in EBV DNA, correlations were more than 0.99 between the centers. At 5 EBV DNA copies per reaction or above, the coefficient of variance (CV) was less than 10% for the cycle threshold (Ct) among all centers, suggesting this concentration can be reliably used as a cutoff for defining the presence of detectable EBV DNA.
conclusionsQuantitative PCR assays, even when conducted in experienced clinical labs, can yield large variability in plasma EBV DNA copy numbers without harmonization. The use of common calibrators and PCR master mix can help to reduce variability.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.