DISAPPEARANCE OF THE EPSTEIN-BARR-VIRUS IN A RELAPSE OF HODGKINS-DISEASE

Hodgkin's disease (HD) is associated with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in approximately half of cases. This is a report of a case of nodular sclerosing HD of the B-cell type that mas associated with EBV in the initial manifestation, but was found to be EBV-negative in the relapse of the tumour. Both tumours displayed similar clinical, pathological, and immunohistochemical features. This finding implies that in a give n individual EBV can be lost from malignant rumours and therefore show s that the EBV infection is not required to maintain neoplastic growth of HD tumour cells. (C) 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.