Demonstration of Epstein-Barr viral genomes by in situ hybridization in acquired immune deficiency syndrome-related high grade and anaplastic large cell CD30+ lymphomas.

From September 1984 through December 1991, of those with human immunodeficiency virus infection seen at the acquired immune deficiency syndrome unit of the Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, Aviano, Italy, 71 patients had systemic non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. The most frequent histotypes were small noncleaved cell, anaplastic large cell (ALC) CD30/BerH2+, and large cell immunoblastic. In 22 representative cases of these histotypes, including 9 of small noncleaved cell, 9 of ALC CD30/BerH2+, and 4 of immunoblastic non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, Epstein-Barr virus genetic information was assessed by in situ hybridization and correlated with histologic and immunophenotypic findings. Expression of B-cell associated markers, usually including CD19, CD20, CD22, CDw75, and CD74, was found in 17 of the 22 evaluated cases. All small noncleaved cell and immunoblastic cases and four cases of ALC lymphomas expressed B-cell immunophenotypes, whereas the remaining ALC cases were immunologically undetermined. In situ hybridization detected Epstein-Barr virus in 12 of 22 cases (54.5%). Seven of nine ALC lymphomas were positive, as were three of five small noncleaved cell type (Burkitt's lymphoma), one of four small noncleaved cell type (non-Burkitt's variant), and one of four large cell immunoblastic type. The results of this study indicate that Epstein-Barr virus genomes might be identified in more than 50% of the evaluated high grade non-Hodgkin's lymphomas; this association occurred significantly more often in the small noncleaved cell lymphomas resembling endemic Burkitt's lymphoma (60%) and with ALC CD30/BerH2+ lymphomas (77.8%). These findings support the notion that Epstein-Barr virus may play a role in the development of non-Hodgkin's lymphomas in a proportion of human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients.