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Background: An association between a nonmedicinal herbal diet and nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) has often been hypothesized but never thoroughly investigated.Methods: This study enrolled a total of 2469 patients with incident NPC and 2559 population controls from parts of Guangdong and Guangxi Provinces in southern China between 2010 and 2014. Questionnaire information was collected on the intake of traditional herbal tea and herbal soup as well as the specific herbal plants used in soups and other potentially confounding lifestyle factors. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the NPC risk in association with herbal tea and soup intake.Results: Ever consumption of herbal tea was not associated with NPC risk (OR, 1.03; 95% CI, 0.91-1.17). An inverse association was observed for NPC among ever drinkers of herbal soup (OR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.67-0.90) but without any monotonic trend with an increasing frequency or duration of herbal soup consumption. Inverse associations with NPC risk were detected with 9 herbal plants used in herbal soup, including Ziziphus jujuba, Fructus lycii, Codonopsis pilosula, Astragalus membranaceus, Semen coicis, Smilax glabra, Phaseolus calcaratus, Morinda officinalis, and Atractylodes macrocephala (OR range, 0.31-0.79).Conclusions: Consuming herbal soups including specific plants, but not herbal tea, was inversely associated with NPC. If replicated, these results might provide potential for NPC prevention in endemic areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) reactivation from latent to lytic infection has been considered as a key step in nasopharyngeal carcinoma oncogenesis. However, epidemiological evidence regarding environmental risk factors for EBV reactivation on a population level remains largely lacking. Methods We enrolled 1916 randomly selected adults from the general population of Guangdong and Guangxi, China, from 2010 to 2014. Information on environmental factors was collected via a structured interview. Serum immunoglobulin A antibodies against EBV viral capsid antigen and nuclear antigen 1 were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to evaluate EBV reactivation status. We used logistic regression to calculate odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the associations of EBV reactivation with various environmental factors. Results No associations were observed between EBV reactivation and extensive environmental factors, including alcohol or tea drinking, a history of chronic ear/nose/throat diseases, use of medications or herbs, consumption of salted fish or preserved foods, oral hygiene, sibship structure, and various residential and occupational exposures. Only cigarette smoking was associated with EBV reactivation (current smokers vs never smokers; OR = 1.37; 95% CI = 1.02–1.83), with positive exposure-response trends with increasing intensity, duration, and pack-years of smoking. Conclusions Consistent with previous studies, we found an association between cigarette smoking and EBV reactivation. Other examined exposures were not associated with EBV reactivation. These null results could suggest either more complex interactions between exposures and EBV reactivation or a predominant role of host and/or viral genetic variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]