Associations were similar and remained significant after excluding patients with cardiovascular disease , diabetes , and chronic hepatitis B. Patients with advanced-stage disease were segregated by high EBV DNA levels and high hs-CRP level into a poorest-risk group , and participants with either high EBV DNA but low hs-CRP level or high hs-CRP but low EBV DNA values had poorer survival compared with the bottom values for both biomarkers .