Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 1994 Mar;85(3):231-7.
doi: 10.1111/j.1349-7006.1994.tb02087.x.

Mortality among inhabitants of an HTLV-I endemic area in Japan

K Iwata  1 , S Ito, H Saito, M Ito, M Nagatomo, T Yamasaki, S Yoshida, H Suto, K Tajima
Affiliations

Mortality among inhabitants of an HTLV-I endemic area in Japan

K Iwata et al. Jpn J Cancer Res. 1994 Mar.

Abstract

A community-based cohort study was conducted to clarify the risk of human T-cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I) infection for cause-specific deaths. A total of 1,997 individuals (751 men and 1,246 women) aged 30 or older in A-Island, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan who had voluntarily attended annual mass health examinations, including serum HTLV-I antibody test, were followed up for a mean period of 5.3 years. In a Cox proportional hazards analysis adjusted for age at baseline, the HTLV-I seropositivity was found to be associated with mortality from all causes in men (hazard ratio (HR) 1.89; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.01-3.54) and women (HR 1.94; 95% CI 1.16-3.22). When the effects of 2 deaths (1 man and 1 woman) from adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) were excluded, the mortality risk decreased slightly but was still significantly or marginally significantly greater than 1 in both men (HR 1.77; 95% CI 0.93-3.37) and women (HR 1.87; 95% CI 1.12-3.12). Further analysis of cause-specific deaths revealed a significant increase in the risk for non-neoplastic diseases but not for neoplasms excluding ATL. These findings suggest that long-term HTLV-I infection represents a health hazard greater than just that for the development of ATL. It was difficult, however, to draw a conclusion regarding the association between HTLV-I infection and cancer risk, because the number of cancer deaths was small and the incidence of cancer was not investigated.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. ) Poiesz , B. J. , Ruscetti , F. W. , Gazdar , A. F. , Bunn , P. A. , Minna , J. D. and Gallo , R. C.Detection and isolation of type C retrovirus particles from fresh and cultured lymphocytes of a patient with cutaneous T‐cell lymphoma . Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA , 77 , 7415 – 7419 ( 1980. ). - PMC - PubMed
    1. ) Hinuma , Y. , Nagata , K. , Hanaoka , M. , Nakai , M. , Matsumoto , T. , Kinoshita , K. , Shirakawa , S. and Miyoshi , I.Adult‐T‐cell leukemia: antigen in an ATL cell line and the detection of antibodies to the antigen in human sera . Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA , 78 , 6476 – 6480 ( 1981. ). - PMC - PubMed
    1. ) Hinuma , Y. , Komoda , H. , Chosa , T. , Kondo , T. , Kohakura , M. , Takenaka , T. , Kikuchi , M. , Ichimaru , M. , Yunoki , K. , Sato , I. , Matsuo , R. , Takiuchi , Y. , Uchino , H. and Hanaoka , M.Antibodies to adult T‐cell leukemiavirus‐associated‐antigen (ATLA) in sera from patients with ATL and controls in Japan: a nationwide seroepidemiologic study . Int. J. Cancer , 29 , 631 – 635 ( 1982. ). - PubMed
    1. ) Murphy , E. L. , Hanchard , B. , Figueroa , J. P. , Gibbs , W. N. , Lofters , W. S. , Campbell , M. , Goedert , J. J. and Blattner , W. A.Modeling the risk of adult T‐cell leukemia/lymphoma in persons infected with human T‐lymphotropicvirus type I . Int. J. Cancer , 43 , 250 – 253 ( 1989. ). - PubMed
    1. ) Delaporte , E. , Dupont , A. , Peeters , M. , Josse , R. , Merlin , M. , Schrijvers , D. , Hamono , B. , Bedjabaga , L. , Cheringou , H. , Boyer , F. , Brun‐Vezinet , F. and Larouze , B.Epidemiology of HTLV‐I in Gabon (western equatorial Africa) . Int. J. Cancer , 42 , 687 – 689 ( 1988. ). - PubMed

Publication types

Substances

LinkOut - more resources