The establishment of the suspension Epstein-Barr virus producing cell lines from patients with tumoral diseases.

Isolation of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in suspension lymphoblastoid cell lines from human patients with tumor diseases, mainly malignant lymphoma, has been described. It has been shown that the EBV was isolated from human patients with myeloid type of leukemia in 75% of cases. A similar virus was also isolated from patients with Hodgkin's disease and leukemoid reaction of the myeloid type for lung cancer. Morphological, cytochemical, immunological, and cytogenetic characteristics of the cell lines in which the EBV is replicated have been investigated.