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CompletedNCT00339638Updated Jul 2, 2017

Study of Adult T-Cell Leukemia/Lymphoma Among Carriers of HTLV-1

An observational study in Human T-Lymphoma Virus Type I, sponsored by National Cancer Institute (NCI). Completed at 5 sites in 3 countries. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2017-07-02.

Sponsored by National Cancer Institute (NCI) · Observational

Study type
Observational
Enrollment
228
Sex
All
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Study summary

This study will identify chemical and protein markers in the blood of people who carry the human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I), a virus associated with various pathologies, including an increased risk in adults of a rare and aggressive cancer called adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL). The study will also examine differences in these markers before and after the onset of ATL.

ATL has been reported in every area where HTLV-1 is common, including the Caribbean and parts of Japan, West Africa, the Middle East, South America, and Pacific Melanesia. Risk factors for the disease are largely unknown and seem to vary among those affected in different endemic regions. People who acquire the infection early in life are thought to be at higher risk than those who are infected later. In Japan, men seem to be at greater risk than women, but the same is not evident among the black population in the Caribbean and Brazil.

Findings from this study will increase understanding of the cause of ATL and identify differences in tumor characteristics and the course of disease across geographical areas.

Study subjects are drawn from among participants in eight studies of HTLV-1 carriers, including the 1) Jamaica Mother-Infant Cohort Study, 2) Jamaica Family Study, 3) Jamaica Food Handlers Study, 4) Miyazaki Cohort Study in Japan, 5) Nagasaki Cohort Study in Japan, 6) Japan Public Health Center-based Prospective Study on Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease, 7) HTLV Outcome Studies in the United States, and 8) GIPH Cohort Study in Brazil.

Stored blood samples previously collected from patients in the above studies who did and did not develop ATL will be analyzed for immunologic and genetic factors.

Read the detailed description

To characterize molecular markers for risk of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL), whose incidence rate differs greatly across geographic areas, we propose to examine the prevalence and level of viral and host immune response markers as well as the protein expression pattern of 57 subjects who subsequently developed ATL and 171 matched control subjects who participated in various prospective studies of carriers of human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I). Informative markers to be studied include provirus load, HTLV-I antibody titer, anti-Tax protein, clonality of HTLV-I infected lymphocytes (viral markers), total immunoglobulin E (IgE), C-reactive protein (CRP), neopterin, soluble CD30, soluble interleukin-2 receptor (sIL2-R), EBV antibody profile (host immune markers), and proteomics. These markers were selected based on the measurability on the majority of specimens, availability of validated assays, relevance to the biology of T-cell malignancies, and has been used in a cross-sectional comparison of HTLV-I carriers and non-carriers from Japan and the Caribbean. We will utilize central laboratory and validated, standard assays for all specimens. The results, unlinked to personal identifiers, will be analyzed using generalized estimating equation. The findings will further our understanding of the etiology of ATL, and of differences in natural history of HTLV-I infection across geographic areas.

While pursuing the same theme of trying to identify host and viral markers associated with ATL, the unique aspect of this proposal is to pool ATL cases, an extremely rare malignancy, from multiple epidemiologic studies through international collaboration, in order to achieve adequate statistical power and to perform valid comparison of tumor characteristics across geographic areas.

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Conditions studied

  • Human T-Lymphoma Virus Type I

Keywords

  • Epidemiology
  • Risk Prediction
  • Biomarkers
  • Nested Case Control
03

In context

Lymphoma

5,578 studies on the registry are indexed under Lymphoma; 825 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 228 is above the median of 136 across 625 observational studies indexed under Lymphoma.

Browse Lymphoma studies →

Lead sponsor

National Cancer Institute (NCI) is the lead sponsor of 3,506 studies on the registry; 334 are open to participants now.

Of its 402 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 365 (91%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

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Who can participate

Ages eligible
Child (0–17), Adult (18–64), Older adult (65+)
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Eligibility criteria

  • INCLUSION CRITERIA:

CASES:

Incident ATL cases will be identified from the various study cohorts. For Jamaica Family Study, in which prevalent cases were enrolled, we will only include cases that occurred among initially unaffected family members. The diagnosis of ATL follows universal criteria for all cohorts. For each case, one prediagnostic specimen will be analyzed. If there are more than one prediagnostic specimens, we will select the earliest drawdate from which both serum/plasma and DNA specimens are available. Whenever available, one postdiagnostic specimen will also be considered for analysis of longitudinal changes in marker levels.

CONTROLS:

Fro each index case, 2 age-, sex-, screen-matched asymptomatic HTLV-I carriers will be selected as controls, from within the same cohort in which the case arose (risk set sampling). For Jamaica Family Study, the control subjects are selected from unrelated subjects (such as spouses or incidental recruit unrelated to the index case) or from one or two population-based studies of unrelated subjects (i.e., food handlers study or mother-infant cohort study). For controls, specimens collected close to the time of pre- and post-diagnostic phlebotomy for the case will be analyzed.

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Study design

Enrollment
228 participants (estimated)
06

Study locations

5 sites
  • University of California, San Francisco
    San Francisco, California 94143, United States
  • Harvard School of Public Health
    Boston, Massachusetts, United States
  • University of the West Indies
    Kingston, Jamaica
  • Tokushima University
    Tokushima City, Japan
  • National Cancer Center Research Institute
    Toyko, Japan
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References and documents

Publications

  • Manns A, Hisada M, La Grenade L. Human T-lymphotropic virus type I infection. Lancet. 1999 Jun 5;353(9168):1951-8. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(98)09460-4. PubMed 10371587 ↗
  • Uchiyama T, Yodoi J, Sagawa K, Takatsuki K, Uchino H. Adult T-cell leukemia: clinical and hematologic features of 16 cases. Blood. 1977 Sep;50(3):481-92. No abstract available. PubMed 301762 ↗
  • Yamaguchi K, Seiki M, Yoshida M, Nishimura H, Kawano F, Takatsuki K. The detection of human T cell leukemia virus proviral DNA and its application for classification and diagnosis of T cell malignancy. Blood. 1984 May;63(5):1235-40. PubMed 6324929 ↗
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Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jul 2, 2017, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT00339638
Lead sponsor
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
First posted
Jun 21, 2006
Start date
Dec 21, 2004
Completion
May 26, 2011
Last update
Jul 2, 2017
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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