High frequency of Epstein–Barr virus in Chinese peripheral T‐cell lymphoma

Abstract

Forty-two cases of Chinese T-cell lymphoma were studied for expression of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) encoded RNA (EBER-1) and EBV latent membrane protein-1 (LMP-1) using in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry, respectively. EBV was detected in tumour cells in 24/39 peripheral T-cell lymphomas (62%), comprising 18/27 pleomorphic, medium and large cell lymphomas (67%), 4/6 angioimmunoblastic lymphadenopathy-like lymphomas (67%), 2/2 Lennert's lymphomas, 0/2 anaplastic large cell lymphomas, and 0/2 T-zone lymphomas. EBV was not found in three T-lymphoblastic lymphomas. EBV was associated with 12/24 nodal (50%) compared with 12/15 extranodal (80%) peripheral T-cell lymphomas. In EBV positive nodal lymphomas, 9/12 cases (75%) contained less than 10% EBER positive tumour cells. In EBV positive extranodal lymphomas, 9/11 cases (82%) showed EBV gene expression in more than 50% of the tumour cells, and in five of these almost all tumour cells were positive. Lymphomas of the nasopharynx (mainly midline granuloma-type) showed EBER-1 expression in nearly all tumour cells. LMP-1 was detected in 19/23 EBER positive peripheral T-cell lymphomas (83%). Our results show that EBV is strongly associated with peripheral T-cell lymphomas in Chinese. An important role for the virus is suggested in lymphomas of the nasopharynx. The significance of EBV in T-cell lymphomas that contain only a minor population of virally infected tumour cells is currently unclear.

Prognostic significance of Epstein-Barr virus in nodal peripheral T-cell lymphoma, unspecified: a Groupe d'Etude des Lymphomes de l'Adulte (GELA) study

“…The EBER-ISH technique was found to be positive in 41% of patients, again paralleling the results of previous studies. 14,[17][18][19][20] The high sensitivity of the EBER-ISH technique compared with immunostaining, even in archival material, is well known 14,17,18,20 and illustrated here by the fact that LMP-1 was positive in only half of the EBER-ISHpositive cases.Although the type of treatment varied between protocol arms, all but one patient (109/110) were treated with an anthracyclinbased regimen. All patients 60 years or younger received an intensive regimen with curative intent.…”

“…10,11 Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), the etiologic agent of infectious mononucleosis, has been linked to a wide range of tumors, mainly of B-cell origin. 12 Association of PTCLs with EBV has been first described in the late 1980s, 13 and has since been found to be present in an important fraction of cases in series from Asia [14][15][16][17][18][19] and from Western countries. [20][21][22][23] While some entities (angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma 24 and extranodal NK/Tcell lymphoma, nasal type 25 ) are almost systematically associated with EBV, the frequency and signification of such an association among others is less well defined.…”

“…In PTCL-U, EBV has been detected in 25% to 58% of cases using various techniques. 14,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] Among these, EBV-encoded small RNA-in situ hybridization (EBER-ISH) has the best potential to detect EBV in this setting. 26 d'Amore et al 27 reported that the detection of EBV in T-cell lymphomas by EBER-ISH was associated with the worst outcome in a register-based population including various histologic subtypes.…”

The Characteristics of Epstein‐Barr Virus (EBV)‐positive Diffuse Large B‐Cell Lymphoma: Comparison between EBV+ and EBV‐ Cases in Japanese Population

“…12) In DLBCL, Hummel et al 5) reported that EBER signals were expressed in tumor cells in 10 of 83 European cases (12%) by RNA-ISH. We found a similar frequency in Japanese cases (13 4,13) and one case in Hong Kong, 14) but most cases with EBV + DLBCL were negative for EBNA2.…”

Epstein-Barr virus in lymphoproliferative diseases in the sino-nasal region: Close association with CD56+ immunophenotype and polymorphic-reticulosis morphology

“…Other studies showed that PR was also an EBV-associated tumor, not only in the Oriental population (Harabuchi et al, 1990;Chan et al, 1994;Zhou et al, 1994;Peh et al, 1995;Tomita et al, 1995) but also in Western countries (Weiss et al, 1992;Kanavaros et al, 1993;Borisch et al, 1993). However, data to correlate EBV positivity and immunophenotype of PR are limited.…”