The Incidence of the Epstein-Barr Virus Nuclear Antigen in Non-Hodgkin's Lymphomas of the Gastrointestinal Tract

ABSTRACT

The Epstein-Barr virus(EBV) is known to play a causal role in oncogenesis and to be associated with endemic Burkitt's lymphomas, B cell lymphomas in immunocompromised patients, and nasopharyngeal carcinomas. More recently, EBV has also associated with Hodgkin's disease, B cell lymphomas in non-immunocompromised patients, and T-cell lymphomas. Twenty eight cases of a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of gastrointestinal tract were investigated to determine both the immunophenotype by using immunohistochemical staining and the incidence of the EBV nuclear antigen by using the polymerase chain reaction. Twenty-four of the 28 cases(85.7%) were B-cell type, and 4 of the 28 cases(14.3%) are of T-cell type. The EBV nuclear antigen was detected in three of the 28 cases(10.7%), including two cases of B-cell lymphoma of the stomach and one case of T-cell lymphoma of the small bowel. The EBV nuclear antigen was more frequently found in malignant lymphomas arising in the intestine(1/4) than in stomach(2/16). EBV positivity (25%) in T-cell NHLs was rather higher than EBV positivity (8.3%) in B-cell NHLs. Further expanded evaluations on the role of EBV in the tumorigenesis of a gastrointestinal malignant lymphomas are necessary because the cases of gastrointestinal lymphomas examined were very limited.