Association between Epstein-Barr virus infection and Hodgkin’s lymphoma

Background and purpose:The occurrence of many tumors is related with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), especially in Hodgkin’s lymphoma (HL).But the positive rate of EBV was variable in different regions,sex and age. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of EB infection with HL in Fujian detected by tissue array and in situ hybridization. Methods:Seventy-four cases with pathologically diagnosed as Hodgkin’s lymphoma were collected and were made to a tissue microarray section. In situ hybridization was employed to detect the EBV-encoded small RNA (EBER) in tumor cells. Results:All of EBV-associated Hodgkin’s lymphoma were classical ones, 38 cases of 74 Hodgkin’s lymphomas were showed EBV positive (51.4%), including 5 lymphocyte depletion HL (LD) (5/7),23 mixed cellularity HL (MC) (23/28), 5 nodular sclerosis HL (NS) (5/18) and 5 lymphocyte rich HL (LP) (5/17), LD and MC were closely related to EBV infection. There were 9 EBER positive cases of 10 cases in children with age 14 years old,7 EBER positive cases of 8 cases in those with age 70 years old and the positive rate of EBER in adult were 39.3% (22/56). The positive rate of EBER in children and the older was significantly higher than that in adult (χ 2 =13.4, P0.05). The patients with clinical stage Ⅲ-Ⅳ showed higher EBV expression (76%,27/42) than those in clinical stage Ⅰ-Ⅱ (33%,11/32) (χ 2 =7.7, P0.05). On the other hand, the positive rate of EBER was 54.7% (29/55) in male patient and 42.7% (9/21) in female ones. Conclusion:Hodgkin’s lymphoma in Fujian was associated with EBV infection,especially the type of MC and LD.