EPSTEIN-BARR-VIRUS (EBV) LATENT MEMBRANE-PROTEIN (LMP) IN TUMOR-CELLSOF HODGKINS-DISEASE IN PEDIATRIC-PATIENTS

Twenty-nine out of 31 consecutive pediatric patients with Hodgkin's di sease treated at our hospital from 1988 to 1992 were studied. The sele ction criterion was the availablity of sufficient formalin-fixed, para ffin-embedded tissue for analysis. Patient age ranged from 3 to 15 yea rs with a median age of 7 years. Lymph node biopsies were examined for the presence of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-encoded latent membrane prot ein (LMP) in malignant cells by peroxidase immunolabeling. LMP positiv ity was present in 10/15 (67%) of mixed cellularity, 1/6 (17%) of lymp hocyte predominance, 0/7 (0%) of nodular sclerosis, and 1/1 (100%) of lymphocyte depletion. Positive cases by age range were: 10/12 (83%) fo r 3-6 years and 2/17 (11%) for 7-15 years. The association between EBV and Hodgkin's disease in children appeared to be more frequent in pat ients with mixed cellularity and those in the 3-6 age range, though ex amples of EBV-positive tumors were found in other histologic subtypes, stages and ages. Findings indicate that Hodgkin's disease in children is at least as strongly linked to EBV as in adults. Furthermore, we s uggest that the EBV is associated with a subgroup of patients which ca n be defined on the basis of the age at diagnosis. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss , Inc.