Clinicopathological Characteristics and Expressor Patterns of C-MYC and EBV in Large B Cell Lymphoma

Large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) accounts for over 30% of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) cases. C-MYC is a multifunctional transcription factor that has been found in 7-15% of de-novo LBCL.As a viral oncogenic protein, EBV has been linked to lymphoproliferation in a variety of diseases, from benign, self-limited conditions to incredibly aggressive lymphomas.

To study the expression of C-MYC and EBV in nodal large B cell lymphoma by immunohistochemistry and its correlation with clinicopathological factors such as age, gender, clinical presentation, complete blood count, bone marrow status, and biochemical markers such as LDH and uric acid. An analysis of the germinal centre B-cell (GCB) subtype and the activated B-cell/non-GCB subtype (ABC) based on Hans algorithm and its proliferation index was also evaluated.

The study included 40 cases of nodal LBCL in total. There was a slight male predominance with a median age of 56 years. Positive expression of C-MYC was observed in 19/40 cases (47.5%), of which 12/19 were ABC groups and 7/19 were GCB groups. EBV was positive in 11/40 (27.5%) cases, 7/11 ABC, and 4/11 GCB, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference found between the groups of GCB and ABC concerning clinicopathological characteristics, Ki67% and expression of C-MYC and EBV.

Positive C-MYC and EBV expression results point to a possible aetiology for B-cell lymphoma. We were unable to find any variations in the expression of EBV or C-MYC between the GCB and ABC groups. A large-scale, prospective investigation involving multiple institutions is necessary.