Association between EBV and Hodgkin´s Disease. Comparative study in children and adults in Argentine

VIJNOVICH, A.; DE MATTEO, E; PAOLA ANDREA CHABAY; PRECIADO, M. V.

Atlanta

Congreso; United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology Spring Meeting; 2001

United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology

Background There is a variation in the incidence, age, sex, histological subtype distribution and EBV association of HL. Three patterns were described according to geographic location, and socioeconomic status. Pattern 1: non-industrialized countries and low socioeconomic groups (LSG), overall low incidence of HL with early childhood peak, mixed cellularity (MC) predominance, high association with EBV. Pattern 3: industrialized countries and high socioeconomic groups (HSG), overall increased incidence of HL with a 3rd decade peak, nodular sclerosis (NS) predominance, low association with EBV. Pattern 2: early industrialized or transitional economies, equal frequency of MC and NS and intermediate features. Our purpose is to perform a comparative analysis of two groups of adult HL patients define on the basis of their socioeconomic status: Group 1 (G1): non-public hospital patients, HSG and Group 2 (G2) public hospital ones, LSG. Design Eighty adult HL patients were studied: 39 lymph node and 1 splenectomy from G1 and 40 lymph node biopsies from G2. Biopsies were formalin fixed, paraffin embedded. EBV presence were assessed using EBER-1,-2 in situ hibridization and latent membrane protein 1 (LMP-1) immunohistochemical labeling. The patient´s age range and sex distribution were: G1 16-78 years (median: 28 years), 48% male and G2  16-83 years (median 31 years), 51% male. Results The histological subtype distribution shows equal frequency of NS (46%) and MC (45%) in the whole group, meanwhile there is a predominance of NS (55%) in G1 and CM (57,5%) in G2. The EBER-s nuclear labelling and the LMP-1 cytoplasmic one of  Reed-Sternberg and Hodgkin cells was shown in 20% of G1 cases and 30% of G2 cases. A higher frequency of MC was shown in both groups: G1 50% and G2 67% Conclusions 1) The histological subtype distribution shown in these HL patients is according to the one described for pattern 2. 2) The EBV association of the whole population is similar to the one described in industrialized countries. 3) EBV association in G2 is higher than in G1, which is in accordance to the higher frequency of EBV in low socioeconomic groups.