Absence of Epstein-Barr Viral DNA in American Burkitt's Lymphoma

Abstract

The cellular DNA from tumor-infiltrated tissue from four patients with the American form of Burkitt's lymphoma did not contain detectable Epstein-Barr viral DNA. The analyses were conducted by a highly specific and sensitive molecular hybridization technic, DNA-DNA renaturation kinetics, which can detect 0.4 genome or less of Epstein-Barr viral DNA per cell. The absence of nucleotide sequences homologous to the virus in the American lymphomas is in contrast to African Burkitt's lymphoma and also to nasopharyngeal carcinoma, in which Epstein-Barr viral DNA is usually detectable even with the less sensitive technic of complementary RNA-DNA hybridization. Six specimens from patients with American Hodgkin's disease and three from patients with metastatic melanoma also did not contain detectable Epstein-Barr viral DNA. (N Engl J Med 289:1395–1399, 1973)