AIDS-related B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphomas in direct blood-stream HIV-infected patients: pathogenesis and differentiation features

Abstract

Six AIDS-related NHLs from direct blood-stream HIV-infected patients were characterized for clonality, maturation cell characteristics, activation of c-myc proto-oncogene and presence of HIV and EBV genomes. Four out of the 6 AIDS-related NHLs were of immature B-cell origin, contrasting with the lower frequency (2 out of 31) of immature B-cell NHLs occurring in HIV-negative patients. Moreover, 3 out of the 4 AIDS-related pre-B-NHLs were extranodal lymphomas. C-myc translocations or rearrangements were not found in Italian AIDS-related NHLs, unlike c-myc activation which had a high prevalence in the American series of AIDS-related NHLs. HIV and EBV are not, or only occasionally, directly involved in AIDS-related NHL pathogenesis since HIV genome has never been found in the neoplastic clones and EBV genome was detected in only 1 out of the 6 lymphomas analyzed.