Epstein-Barr Virus DNA in Hodgkin's Disease, American Burkitt's Lymphoma, and Other Human Tumors1

lymphoma (2), although there was 1 case in which EBV DNA could not be detected at the level of 1 EBV genome in every 30 to 50 cells (1). Many but not all African nasopharyngeal carcinomas (18 of 23) also showed the association with EBV DNA (2). Occasionally, EBV genome was found in biopsies (5 of 24) of other African tumors. These included 1 melanoma, 1 carcinoma of the antrum, 1 reticulum cell sarcoma of the maxilla, and 2 adenocarcinomas of the mandible. The number of EBV genomes per cell ranged between 6 and 45. Our attention has now been turned to the United States to enable us to determine whether the association of EBV with tumors is special for certain African regions or is more widely distributed. We have used the technique of DNA-DNA reassociation kinetics, which has 50 to 100 times greater sensitivity than complementary RNA hybridization, and now we can detect