Infrequent association of Epstein-Barr virus with CD30-positive anaplastic large cell lymphomas from American and Asian patients.
CD30 (Ki-1)-positive anaplastic large cell lymphoma (CD30+ ALCL) is a morphologically and immunophenotypically distinct subset of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Although the presence of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) has been well documented in a significant proportion of cases of Hodgkin's disease, another CD30+ malignancy, few studies have examined the association of EBV with CD30+ ALCL. These latter studies have produced conflicting findings. To further investigate the existence of a putative association of EBV with CD30+ ALCL, and whether this association, if present, shows geographic variation, we examined 34 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded specimens from cases of CD30+ ALCL from the United States and Hong Kong. Immunophenotypically, 15 cases were of B lineage, 15 cases were of T lineage, one case expressed both B- and T-cell markers, and three were of null lineage. A highly sensitive in situ hybridization method was performed with use of an antisense oligonucleotide probe to the EBV-encoded RNA (EBER-1). EBV-RNA was identified in 3 of 14 CD30+ ALCL specimens from Hong Kong patients and in 1 of 20 from the American patients. The EBER-1 signal was present in all or virtually all of the tumor cell nuclei in the three EBV-RNA-positive CD30+ ALCL Hong Kong cases, but was only focally present in the single EBV-positive American case. The latent membrane protein-1 (LMP1) of EBV was identified in only one of the four positive cases, a Hong Kong case. Our results suggest that in contrast to Hodgkin's disease, EBV has no significant association with CD30+ ALCL.
Lopategui
J R
JR
Department of Pathology, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA 91010.
Gaffey
M J
MJ
Chan
J K
JK
Frierson
H F
HF
Sun
L H
LH
Bellafiore
F J
FJ
Chang
K L
KL
Weiss
L M
LM
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D017403:In Situ Hybridization; D017728:Lymphoma, Large-Cell, Anaplastic / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009856:Oncogene Proteins, Viral / Q000378:metabolism; D014481:United States; D014763:Viral Matrix Proteins / Q000378:metabolism
C037662:EBV-associated membrane antigen, Epstein-Barr virus; D009856:Oncogene Proteins, Viral; D014763:Viral Matrix Proteins