Twenty-six of 27 African Burkitt lymphomas with histologically confirmed diagnosis contained relatively large amounts of EBV D N A (10-101 viral genomes per cell), as determined by nucleic acid hybridization. Twenty-Jive of the 26 EB V D NA-positive lymphomas contained the E B V-determined nuclear antigen, EBNA, in the majority of the nuclei. Technical reasons may have accounted for the apparent EBNA-negativity of one EB V D NA-positive biopsy. Four African lymphoma biopsies, one with a definite diagnosis of' Burkitt's lymphoma and three with a questionable diagnosis of the same disease, were all EBV DNA-and EBNA-negative. The same was true for a collection of Swedish cases of Hodgkin's disease, lymphocytic lymphoma, chronic lymphatic leukemia and some other lymphoproliferative malignancies. Thus, there is excellent agreement between the presence of EBV D N A and of EBNA in tumor biopsies. The EBNA antigen test therefore appears a relatively simple way of testing for the presence of the virus genome, provided it is carried out with appropriate controls. Several of the EBV-genome and EBNA-negative cases came from patients with high seruni titers of EB V antibodies. It is concluded that the virus does not readily travel along with malignant lytnphoinas as a passenger in the seropositive patients. In comparison with other lymphomas, African Burkitt's lyniphorna of the high endemic areas is unique in that the tumors (with rare exceptions) represent the proliferation of an EB V-genome carrying clone. These findings stress the necessity to distinguish between EB V-seropositive status and e ) iderice for EB V-genome-carrying neoplastic cells. Received: February 19, 1974. B. M. Reedman is a visiting scientist from Queensland lnstitute

Sera from Swedish patients with

Cells from Burkitt lymphoma ( B L ) biopsies were examined for Epstein-Barr virus ( E B V)-associated antigens by complement fixation (CF) tests

Antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) was performed on serum samples from African patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) to determine whether antibody titers determined by this assay might be of prognostic value in this disease. The serum donors were divided into two groups: (1) those individuals who died within 2 years following diagnosis of NPC; and (2) individuals who responded well to therapy and surivived for more than 2 years following diagnosis. The ADCC GMT for the survivor group was significantly higher than the GMT for non-survivors (%5,410 versus 615). Interestingly, there were a number of discordant sera in the non-survivor group that had very low ADCC titers (less than 240) at diagnosis in the presence of high VCA titers. When ADCC titers were compared with anti-EA or IgA antibody titers to VCA, a statistically significant inverse correlation was noted. These data suggest that ADCC titers might be of prognostic importance in African NPC.