1. ¹Department of Microbiology-Immunology and Virology, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, IRCCS, I-33081 Aviano, Italy
2. ²Finnish Cancer Registry, Institute for Statistical Epidemiological Cancer Research, FIN-00171 Helsinki, Finland
3. ³Institute of Clinical Biochemistry, Rikshospitalet, 0027 Oslo, Norway
4. ⁴Helsinki Heart Study, National Public Health Institute, Helsinki, Finland
5. ⁵Department of Epidemiology and Health Promotion, National Public Health Institute, Helsinki, Finland
6. ⁶Department of Viral Diseases and Immunology, National Public Health Institute, Oulu, Finland
7. ⁷Northern Sweden Health and Disease Study, The Medical Biobank, Umeå University, Sweden
8. ⁸Department of Medical Microbiology, Lund University, University Hospital MAS, Entrance 78, S-20502 Malmö, Sweden

Correspondence: Professor J Dillner, E-mail: joakim.dillner@med.lu.se

Received 3 May 2005; Revised 22 July 2005; Accepted 22 July 2005; Published online 30 August 2005.

Abstract

An association between human herpesvirus 8 (HHV8) and multiple myeloma (MM) has been reported, though most studies have not confirmed such association. To follow-up on a previous prospective seroepidemiological study, where HHV8 tended to associate with MM risk, we linked five large serum banks in the Nordic countries with the Nordic cancer registries and 329 prospectively occurring cases of MM were identified, together with 1631 control subjects matched by age and gender. The HHV8 seroprevalences among cases and controls were similar (12 and 15%, respectively) and HHV8 seropositivity did not associate with the risk of MM, neither when considering positivity for lytic antibodies (relative risk (RR)=0.8, 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.5–1.1) nor for latent antibodies (RR=0.6, 95% CI=0.1–2.7). Similar risks were seen when analysis was restricted to case–control sets with at least 2 years lag before diagnosis (RR=0.8, 95% CI=0.5–1.2 and RR=0.9, 95% CI=0.1–4.2). In conclusion, the data indicate that HHV8 infection is not associated with MM.