Epstein-Barr virus positive diffuse large B-cell lymphoma predict poor outcome, regardless of the age

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) positive diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) of the elderly is defined as patients older than 50 years alone. However, recent studies showed young patients with sound immune status could also be affected. In this study, we investigated the clinical features and outcomes of patients with EBV positive DLBCL in the different age groups using different EBER cut-off values. The prevalence of EBV positive DLBCL was 14.0% (35/250) and 10.4% (26/250) for EBER cut-off of 20% and 50%, respectively. With both EBER cut-off values, patients with EBV DLBCL shared many unfavorable prognostic characteristics, regardless of age. EBV positive patients, both in the elderly and young groups, showed significantly worse overall survival and progression-free survival than negative cases. Moreover, no significant differences of outcomes were identified between different age groups with EBV positive DLBCL. In conclusion, EBV positive DLBCL patients, regardless of age, shared similar poor prognostic features and showed worse outcome than negative cases. We suggest that the age criterion of EBV positive DLBCL of the elderly, and possibly the name itself, be modified in future.