[Current diagnosis and prognostic importance of EBV-associated neoplasms]

In addition to endemic Burkitt's lymphoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma a variety of other epithelial-and lymphoid-derived proliferative diseases has been shown to closely link with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection. The former include thymic lymphoepithelial carcinoma, oral hairy leukoplakia and gastric carcinoma. The latter include B-cell lymphoproliferative disorders arising in individuals with primary or secondary immunodeficiency, Hodgkin's disease and T/NK lymphoma. The significance of serological, immunohistochemical and molecular biological methods such as PCR, in situ hybridization and Southern blotting is described. And also the possible prognostic impact of EBV in T/NK-lymphoma is discussed.