Systematic Review: EBNA1 and Nasopharyngeal carcinoma excel sheet

Search criteria

The Google scholar, PubMed, and Web of Science database were used to search up to January, 2012. The search consisted of these key words: ‘‘nasophayngeal carcinoma’’ [All Fields] , OR ‘‘neck cancer’’ [All Fields], AND ‘‘pharynx cancer’’ [All Fields], OR ‘‘nasophayngeal carcinoma’’ [All Fields], OR ‘‘pharynx’’ [All Fields], AND ‘‘carcinoma’’ [All Fields], OR ‘‘throat cancer’’ [All Fields], AND “Epstein-Barr” [All Fields], OR ‘‘EBV’’ [All Fields], AND ‘‘infection’’ [All Fields], OR ‘‘Epstein-Barr Virus’’ [All Fields], OR ‘‘herpes virus’’ [All Fields], OR ‘‘human EBV virus’’ [All Fields], OR ‘‘EBV’’ [All Fields], AND ‘‘virus’’ [All Fields], OR ‘‘herpes epstein’’ [All Fields], NOT (‘‘animal’’) [All Fields]. The search only reflected studies that contained human subjects.

Study inclusion and exclusion

Our systematic review focused on published studies that included patients suffering from nasopharyngeal carcinoma while being infected and not infected with the EBV virus, the concentration of the EBNA1 viral protein in nasopharyngeal carcinoma affected patients, and the analysis of the types of genetic markers used to measure activity and concentration of EBNA1. Studies were selected by one viewer. Other studies that looked at nasopharyngeal carcinoma in animals were excluded due to different a different genetic makeup to humans. Moreover, studies including other types of diseases were excluded due to interacting symptoms that can cause confounding factors. The selection was done by browsing for titles and abstracts that contain information involving nasopharyngeal carcinoma infected patients with the EBV virus. If studies contained information of EBNA1, they were also selected as well. Some studies underwent full view, whereas most studies displayed abstracts. 

Data Extraction

The data extraction was carried out by one reviewer. Extracted data were taken from the article inclusions. The data included: concentrations for EBNA1 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients, sample size of each experiment, the amount of control vs experimental groups containing nasopharyngeal carcinoma with and without EBV virus, the amount of patients displaying symptoms of nasopharyngeal carcinoma while being infected with the EBV virus, and the types of genetic markers used to track EBNA1 protein activity in the cell.