INFREQUENT ASSOCIATION OF EPSTEIN-BARR-VIRUS WITH CD30-POSITIVE ANAPLASTIC LARGE-CELL LYMPHOMAS FROM AMERICAN AND ASIAN PATIENTS

CD30 (Ki-1)-positive anaplastic large cell lymphoma (CD30(+) ALCL) is a morphologically and immunophenotypically distinct subset of non-Hodg kin's lymphoma. Although the presence of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) has been well documented in a significant proportion of cases of Hodgkin's disease, another CD30(+) malignancy, few studies have examined the as sociation of EBV with CD30(+) ALCL. These latter studies have produced conflicting findings. To further investigate the existence of a putat ive association of EBV with CD30(+) ALCL, and whether this association , if present, shows geographic variation, we examined 34 formalin-fixe d, paraffin-embedded specimens from cases of CD30(+) ALCL from the Uni ted States and Hong Kong. Immunophenotypically, 15 cases were of B lin eage, 15 cases were of T lineage, one case expressed both B- and T-cel l markers, and three were of null lineage. A highly sensitive in situ hybridization method was performed with use of an antisense oligonucle otide probe to the EBV-encoded RNA (EBER-1). EBV-RNA was identified in 3 of 14 CD30(+) ALCL specimens from Hong Kong patients and in 1 of 20 from the American patients. The EBER-1 signal was present in all or v irtually all of the tumor cell nuclei in the three EBV-RNA-positive CD 30(+) ALCL Hong Kong cases, but was only focally present in the single EBV-positive American case. The latent membrane protein-1 (LMP1) of E BV was identified in only one of the four positive cases, a Hong Kong case. Our results suggest that in contrast to Hodgkin's disease, EBV h as no significant association with CD30(+) ALCL.