Search for an adenovirus etiology of human oral and pharyngeal tumors

A comparison and characterization of the type of cellular outgrowth from normal and malignant human oropharyngeal mucosal epithelium have been made. Biopsies were explanted on collagen substrates and maintained in Eagle's basal medium plus 30% fetal calf serum. Epithelial cells grown from a squamous cell carcinoma of the hypopharynx were maintained for over 6 months in three serial subcultures. Secondary cellular outgrowths from 25 different oropharyngeal tumors were studied for the presence of intranuclear T antigens induced by adenovirus types 7, 12, 18, 21 and 31 using the direct immunofluorescence technique. Antigens similar to the T antigen in adenovirus‐induced hamster tumor cells were not observed. Sera from 88 patients were tested for the presence of antibodies against adeno 12 viral and T antigens by indirect fluorescent staining. Antibodies to adenovirus‐12‐induced T antigens were found at about the same frequency, namely 17%, 23% and 24% in the sera of patients with no malignancy, patients with oral or pharyngeal tumors and patients with tumor at other sites respectively. Nearly 44% of the sera contained antibodies against adeno 12 viral antigens. However, only 50% of these positive sera contained antibodies against adeno‐12‐induced T antigen. None of the viral negative sera had antibodies to the T antigen.