ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is closely associated with African Burkitt lymphoma, B-cell lymphoproliferative disorders arising in immunocompromised individuals, and nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Whether EBV is also associated with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in patients without pre-existing immunocompromized status is less clear. The authors examined the clinical, morphologic, immunohistochemical features of 42 sporadic NHLs in areas of head and neck and aslo analyzed the presence of EBV genome by using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). METHODS: All lymphoma cases examined were classified according to the Working Formulation and also determined the immunophenotype using paraffin-embedded sections. For PCR, DNA was extracted from formalin fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue using chelating resin with some modifications, and processed amplification with EBV genome primers. RESULTS: Morphologically, the cases consisted of 21 diffuse large cell, 7 diffuse mixed cell, 5 large immunoblastic, 4 follicular, two small cleaved cell, two small lymphocytic and one lymphoblastic lymphoma in Working Formulation classification. Immunohistochemically, 29 cases were of B-cell lineage, 11 cases were of T-cell lineage and two cases were of non-B and non-T cell immunophenotype. EBV genome was detected in 8 of 42 cases (19%) including 3 of 29 B-cell lymphomas (10%), and 5 of 11 T-cell lymphomas (45%). CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that EBV play a role in the development of B and T-cell lymphoma.