Purpose: The relationship between Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and infectious mononucleosis, pharyngeal carcinoma and Burkitt's lymphoma is well known. Further relationship seems to exist between EBV and the lymphoproliferative syndromes appearing in immunodeficient subjects. The present work is aimed to study the possible relationship between the virus and the lymphoproliferative syndromes presented by people without any apparent immunodeficiency.
Patients and methods: The presence of antibodies against different antigens of the virus was analysed. Antibodies against the viral capsid antigen were studied along with those against the early antigen and the viral core antigen in 55 patients with lymphoproliferative syndromes, of whom 38 had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and 17 had acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, and none of them had immunodeficiency.
Results: Significantly higher geometric means of the titres against capsid antigen and of the prevalence of antibodies against early antigen were seen in the patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma with respect to the control group. On the contrary, patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia showed lower immunologic response than the control group, although the difference was not significant for any of the antibodies under study.
Conclusions: The higher immunologic response against EBV and its reactivation in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma would suggest that such agent could play a role favouring the onset of the disease, if not as a direct aetiological factor.