title: Cancer, viruses and environmental factors.
abstract: The genesis of Burkitt's lymphoma is visualized as proceeding in three steps: I. Primary EBV infection affects the young child, probably at a relatively high multiplicity. It immortalizes a certain number of B-lymphocytes in vivo. II. This is followed by the impact of an environmental promoting agent, perhaps chronic holoendemic malaria, providing a chronic stimulus to the proliferation of the EBV-carrying preneoplastic cells. III. Chromosomally abnormal variants appear in the stimulated tissue by chance. After certain types of changes, particularly the 8 to 14 translocation that leads to the 14q+ marker, the affected B lymphocyte would no longer obey the negative feedback controls that would otherwise restrict its proliferation in vivo.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000956:Antigens, Viral; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D002051:Burkitt Lymphoma / Q000209:etiology; D002460:Cell Line; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; D003582:Cytogenetics; D004782:Environmental Health; D005814:Genes, Viral; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human; D006801:Humans; D007244:Infectious Mononucleosis / Q000209:etiology; D008232:Lymphoproliferative Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D051379:Mice; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology*; D011991:Receptors, Virus; D014780:Viruses
chemical_list: D000956:Antigens, Viral; D011991:Receptors, Virus