The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is associated with a proportion of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) cases, and this association is believed to be causal. The aetiology of cases lacking EBV in the tumour cells (EBV HRS-ve), which make up the majority of cases in western countries, is obscure. It has been suggested that EBV may also cause these tumours by using a hit-and-run mechanism. Support for this idea comes from the finding that most young adult patients, who are likely to have a good immune response to EBV, have EBV HRS-ve HL. We investigated this possibility using a combined serologic and molecular approach. Analysis of EBV seroprevalence rates in an epidemiologic study of young adult HL revealed that cases with EBV HRS-ve HL were more likely to be EBV-seronegative than controls. Furthermore, additional studies clearly showed that some HL patients have never been infected by EBV. Quantitative PCR was used to look for the presence of deleted EBV genomes in a series of adult cases with both EBV HRS+ve and HRS-ve HL. Subgenomic fragments were detected in equimolar proportions. This study, therefore, found no evidence to support the idea that a hit-and-run mechanism involving EBV plays a role in the pathogenesis of HL.
Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.