Expression of Epstein-Barr virus lytically related genes in African Burkitt's lymphoma: Correlation with patient response to therapy

A study on the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)–associated malignancy (endemic) Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) was initiated on fine-needle-aspiration biopsies from 46 proven BL cases in Malawi. Gene expression that might correlate with patient serology (where high levels of antibodies to lytically related genes are commonly observed) was explored. In two-thirds of the cases, we identified the EBV BZLF1 replication activator intermediate early protein ZEBRA in varying quantities and to varying extents in cells by immuno-cytochemistry. The early lytic-cycle gene transcript BHLF1 was assessed positively by solid-phase hybridisation in over half of the same tumours. Evidence of transcription of these genes was confirmed on a smaller number of surgically removed fresh biopsies by RT-PCR. We asked whether our findings, which are generally counter to the established notion that EBV gene expression in BLs is restricted to the latent function, EBNA1, might offer some explanation for the differential responses to chemotherapy observed among African patients. Where the duration of follow-up was sufficient to assign the cases (37 in number) to one of 3 catagories, namely, complete, partial or no response, a significant correlation between expression of the viral function ZEBRA and a positive patient response to treatment was found. Lack of this was associated with poor prognosis. Clinical data and EBV gene expression results support the postulate of subgroups of African BLs, the intermediate early antigen providing a marker of potential use in patient management. Int. J. Cancer 81:6–11, 1999. © 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.