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    Am J Surg Pathol. 1993 Jul;17(7):678-82.

    Clonal Epstein-Barr virus in lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma of the lung.

    Pittaluga S, Wong MP, Chung LP, Loke SL.

    Department of Pathology, University of Hong Kong, Queen Mary Hospital.

    Lymphoepithelioma of the nasopharynx is an undifferentiated carcinoma with a prominent lymphoid infiltrate. A consistent association with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) has been demonstrated over the years by a variety of methods. More recently, undifferentiated carcinomas with a similar morphology have been described in other anatomical locations, often of foregut origin. However, for lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma, the association with EBV has been more tenuous, especially in Western countries. Interestingly, these tumors have shown a geographic distribution similar to nasopharyngeal lymphoepithelioma, with relatively high frequency of EBV positive cases in Asian patients. We report five cases of lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma arising in the lung. In situ hybridization revealed the presence of EBV in all cases with localization to the epithelial cells only. Southern-blot analysis from two cases revealed the presence of clonal episomal EBV in the tumor tissue. These findings further support the hypothesis that EBV is also associated with lymphoepithelioma-like lung carcinomas and suggest that EBV infection has preceded the clonal expansion of the tumor.

    PMID: 8391220 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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