Primary intestinal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and Epstein-Barr virus: high frequency of EBV-infection in T-cell lymphomas of Mexican origin.
Epstein-Barr virus is universally associated with endemic Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) and undifferentiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma and can be detected in a significant proportion of cases of Hodgkin's disease (HD) and peripheral T-cell lymphoma, but only rarely in sporadic B-NHL. The frequency of EBV-positivity in certain neoplasms shows important geographic variations. Both HD and sporadic BL from Latin America have shown higher rates of EBV-association than cases from Western countries. In T-NHL, the frequency of EBV-positivity is influenced by the site of the primary tumor and the phenotype of the neoplastic cells. Nasal and nasal-type T-NHL, which show a T/NK-cell phenotype with expression of CD56 are virtually always EBV-associated, whereas only a proportion of nodal, gastrointestinal and pulmonary T-NHL are EBV-infected. A recent investigation of primary intestinal lymphomas of Mexican origin demonstrated EBV-positivity in all examined cases of T-NHL and BL and a proportion of other B-NHLs. The presence of EBV was independent of the presence or absence of enteropathy. Two of 6 cases studied showed CD56 expression. The high rate of EBV-positivity independent of histologic subtype is in contrast to the low to intermediate rates of EBV-positivity found in cases of intestinal T-NHL from Western countries and indicates that geographic differences in the frequency of EBV-association of lymphoid neoplasms might also extend to a fraction of peripheral T-cell lymphomas.
Department of Pathology, Instituto Nacional de la Nutricion SZ, Mexico City, Mexico.
L
L
Quintanilla-Martínez
C
C
Lome-Maldonado
G
G
Ott
A
A
Gschwendtner
E
E
Gredler
A
A
Angeles-Angeles
E
E
Reyes
F
F
Fend
D002051:Burkitt Lymphoma / Q000382:microbiology; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D007414:Intestinal Neoplasms / Q000382:microbiology*; D016399:Lymphoma, T-Cell / Q000382:microbiology*; D008800:Mexico / Q000453:epidemiology; D014412:Tumor Virus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*