O'Conor G T
IARC Sci Publ. 1984(63):629-46.
Animal models have strongly suggested that lymphoid leukaemias and malignant lymphomas might have a viral etiology. Following the first report by Ludwig Gross in 1951 of the transmission of mouse leukaemia by cell-free filtrates inoculated into newborn mice and the subsequent identification of many tumour-inducing type-C viruses in animals, attention was focused on the RNA retroviruses. However, it was work in Africa which led to the recognition of Burkitt's lymphoma as an entity and to the discovery of the Epstein-Barr virus. Many refer to this DNA virus as the first recognized human tumour virus. The research that these early studies stimulated has resulted in enormous progress in our understanding of human carcinogenesis and in highly significant advances in therapy. More recently, the first human retrovirus was identified and characterized in the laboratory of Dr Robert Gallo. There is increasing evidence that this virus, isolated from a patient with a T-cell lymphoma, is etiologically associated with a specific type of T-cell neoplasm first described in Japan. Africa may be considered the cradle of geographical pathology and the potential for generating unique information on cancer etiology and cancer control is still enormous. Lymphoid neoplasms are excellent models for the study of human cancer, particularly in Africa, since as tumours of the immune system, their induction and evolution is strongly influenced by those environmental factors, such as infection and nutrition, which have a profound effect on the immune response. In addition, there is good evidence that at least some of the tumours in this group are associated with specific transforming viruses. There is an immediate need to collect accurate, reproducible and comparable data on the incidence and characteristics of the different types of lymphoid neoplasia and on the populations in which they occur in the various African countries. Such data will provide the basis for undertaking simultaneous or subsequent etiological and therapeutic studies. Realistic approaches to these goals are considered and specific studies relating to questions posed by available information discussed.
动物模型有力地表明，淋巴白血病和恶性淋巴瘤可能有病毒病因。1951年路德维希·格罗斯首次报告通过接种到新生小鼠体内的无细胞滤液传播小鼠白血病，随后在动物中鉴定出许多致瘤性C型病毒后，注意力集中到了RNA逆转录病毒上。然而，正是在非洲开展的工作使得伯基特淋巴瘤被确认为一种疾病实体，并发现了爱泼斯坦-巴尔病毒。许多人将这种DNA病毒称为第一种被确认的人类肿瘤病毒。这些早期研究激发的研究在我们对人类致癌作用的理解方面取得了巨大进展，并在治疗方面取得了极其显著的进步。最近，在罗伯特·加洛博士的实验室中鉴定并表征了第一种人类逆转录病毒。越来越多的证据表明，这种从一名T细胞淋巴瘤患者身上分离出的病毒在病因上与一种最初在日本描述的特定类型的T细胞肿瘤相关。非洲可被视为地理病理学的摇篮，在癌症病因和癌症控制方面产生独特信息的潜力仍然巨大。淋巴肿瘤是研究人类癌症的极佳模型，尤其是在非洲，因为作为免疫系统的肿瘤，它们的诱发和演变受到那些对免疫反应有深远影响的环境因素，如感染和营养的强烈影响。此外，有充分证据表明，该组中至少一些肿瘤与特定的转化病毒有关。迫切需要收集关于不同类型淋巴肿瘤的发病率和特征以及它们在非洲各国所发生人群的准确、可重复和可比的数据。这些数据将为同时或随后进行病因学和治疗学研究提供基础。本文考虑了实现这些目标的现实方法，并讨论了与现有信息提出的问题相关的具体研究。
