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Eighty-four ovarian cancer (OCa) patients and 84 controls with nonmalignant conditions matched by age and ethnic origin were interviewed with regard to clinical mumps history and their sera were tested for complement fixation (CF) mumps antibodies. OCa patients differed from the controls in the response to past mumps infection in two respects: 1) They appeared to be more likely to have developed subclinical mumps as evidenced by a lower rate of clinical mumps history in the presence of serological evidence of similar infection rates among those with positive and those with negative clinical mumps history. 2) They tended to present lower persistent mumps CF antibody titers. These results may be interpreted to indicate that an immunological incompetence enables the development of OCa possibly through a direct etiologic role of mumps virus.

Before and/or after chemotherapy was administered to patients with Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) or lymphoblastic lymphosarcoma (LLS), their sera and those of matched controls were tested for antibodies to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) capsid antigen (VCA) and early antigen by the indirect immunofluorescence method. Ten of the 16 BL patients were Arab children and 8 of the 11 LLS patients were Jews of Asian-African origin. Although half the BL patients did not have elevated antibody titers when their disease was diagnosed, significantly higher ones were detected in the BL group as compared with the LLS patients and their matched controls; Arab patients had the highest titers. IgM antibodies specific for VCA were found in 2 patients concurrently with elevated titers. We found no correlation between the clinical course of BL and the patients' antibody titers to EBV.

Sera from 67 Hodgkin's disease patients, 71 leukemia patients, and 186 healthy subjects were tested for antibodies to Epstein-Barr (EB) viral antigens by immunofluorescence methods. In both disease categories, in particular Hodgkin's disease patients, levels of antibodies to the viral capsid antigen (EBV-VCA) and MGT were higher than in the healthy controls. Significantly higher titers were found in Jewish patients of Asian-African origin, as compared to Jews of European origin, with Arab patients as intermediates. The effect of ethnic origin was independant of age and histopathologic type. Sex had no effect on titer. Inconsistent differences in titer were found between age groups in the various ethnic-histopathologic type groups. Some of the leukemia patients had no detectable antibodies to EBV, while all Hodgkin's disease patients showed previous contact with EB virus. Antibodies to the early antigen (EBV-EA) were found in 27% of Hodgkin's and 37% of leukemia patients, and in none of the healthy controls tested.