The Ewha Medical Journal
Ewha Womans University School of Medicine
Original Article

Analysis of EBV in Extranodal NK/T Cell Lymphoma

Min-Sun Cho, So-Youn Woo*

Copyright ⓒ 2004. Ewha Womans University School of Medicine. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Published Online: Sep 30, 2004

Abstract

Objectives

Epstein-Barr virus(EBV) is associated with development of various types of lymphoma, especially NK/T cell lymphoma. Recently, its subtypes and LMP-1, major oncoprotein of EBV, have been studied. We investigated the frequency of EBV, its subtypes, and LMP-1 status on the cases diagnosed at Ewha university hospital between 1993 and 2002.

Material and Methods

Sixteen cases of NK/T cell lymphomas were studied. In situ hybridization for EBER-1 mRNA and PCR for EBV subtypes and 30 base pair deletion of LMP-1 were done.

Results

All cases showed EBV positivity by EBER in situ hybridization. All cases contained Type A viruses and 10 cases(62.5%) revealed LMP-1 30bp deletion.

Conclusion

EBV act as a causative role in the development of NK/T cell lymphoma. The exact role of LMP-1 30bp deletion variant in the lymphomatogenesis should be studied with larger number of cases.

Keywords: Epstein-Barr virus; Genotype; LMP-1; NK/T cell Lymphoma; Extranodal