Abstract
One hundred and thirty-seven consecutive cases of gastric carcinomas were evaluated for the presence of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) by use of an in situ hybridization (ISH) assay for EBV-encoded RNA (EBER1) transcript and by means of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify the internal repeat segment of the EBV genome. EBER1 was localized in tumor nuclei of 6 (4.3%) specimens, 5 of which were lymphocpithclioma-like carcinomas. Forty-five cases (32.8%) were positive by PCR, but evidence suggests that EBV positivity in many of these cases was due to latently infected lymphocytes. The presence of EBV by ISH was strongly associated with increased lymphocytic infiltration of tumors. Our inability to identify significant correlations between EBV-infected tumors and patient age, gender, or ethnicity, and tumor stage or histologic type was partly thwarted by low numbers of ISH-positive cases. Int J Surg Pathol 4(3):00-00, 1997
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