Higher chemical complementarity of EBV epitopes and IGH CDR3s correlates with better outcomes for lymphoma and ovarian cancer.

This study investigated the relationship between Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) epitopes and tumor-resident immunoglobulin heavy chain (IGH) CDR3 amino acid (AA) sequences sourced from cancers with a link to EBV. In the case of ovarian cancer, the results revealed that higher chemical complementarity between certain EBV epitopes and IGH CDR3 AA sequences was linked to better outcomes. Additionally, IGH CDR3 and EBV epitope chemical complementarity was examined for Burkitt lymphoma (BL) and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). For both BL and DLBCL, higher chemical complementarity to certain EBV epitopes was associated with improved overall survival probabilities. This latter result may be relevant to the occasional misdiagnosis of lymphoma for ovarian epithelial carcinoma. In sum, the results justify a more detailed study of the role of EBV and the anti-EBV immune response in the ovarian cancer and lymphoma settings.