[Malignant lymphoma and EBV]

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a DNA virus of the herpes virus family can infect and transform resting human B lymphocytes in vitro. EBV was originally considered to be a possible causative agent of African Burkitt's lymphoma and nasopharyngeal lymphoepithelioma. Recently, using highly sensitive methods, such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and in situ hybridization (ISH), EBV has been found to be also present in numerous human lymphoproliferative disorders, including Hodgkin's disease, anaplastic large cell lymphoma, B cell lymphoma in immunocompromised patients, peripheral T cell lymphoma, adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma, nasal lymphoma, AILD-T cell lymphoma, pyothorax-associated pleural lymphoma, and angiocentric T/NK cell lymphoma. However, the EBV infection pattern and the role of EBV in each disease is not the same. We introduce the relationship between EBV and each disease found in our department, using Southern blot analysis, PCR, ISH and immunological staining.