The prevalence of Epstein-Barr virus infection in head and neck non-Hodgkin's lymphomas in Khorasan, northeast of Iran

Objectives: to investigate the frequency and possible role of epstein-barr virus infection in non-hodgkin's lymphomas of the oral cavity and maxillofacial region in khorasan (northeast of iran).methods: the cross-sectional retrospective study assessed the frequency of epstein-barr virus infection in nonimmunosuppressed non-hodgkin's lymphoma cases of the oral cavity and maxillofacial region. formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue sections from 34 cases of head and neck non-hodgkin's lymphoma (17 low-grade b-cell lymphoma, 14 diffuse large b-cell lymphoma, and 3 peripheral t cell lymphoma) were selected as a case group, and 10 normal lymph node sections were considered as a control group. polymerase chain reaction was used to detect the ebv-dna in tissue specimens. spss 16 was used for statistical analysis of the data. results: ebv-dna was detected in 26.5% of nhl samples. among nhls, epstein-barr virus was found to be positive in 50% cases with diffuse large b-cell lymphoma and 11.8% of low grade b-cell lymphomas. epstein-barr virus was not detected in any cases of peripheral t-cell lymphoma. conclusion: although it seems that epstein-barr virus appears to be an etiological factor in some subtypes of non- hodgkin's lymphomas, especially in diffuse large b-cell lymphoma, more researches should be done to investigate the relationship between epstein-barr virus infection and head and neck non-hodgkin's lymphomas.