Detection of Epstein-Barr virus DNA in human tumors.

The presence of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNA in biopsies of human tumors was tested by complementary RNA (cRNA) hybridization on membranes and DNA-DNA reassociation kinetics. DNA-DNA reassociation kinetics can detect as few as 1 EBV genome in every 50 cells, and the cRNA method can detect EBV genomes if 2 or more are present in a cell. Twenty-three out of 24 African Burkitt's lymphoma biopsies, 18 out of 23 African nasopharyngeal carcinomas (NPC), and 8 out of 24 other African tumors were positive for EBV DNA. Three cases of American Burkitt's lymphoma were tested by the cRNA method, and EBV DNA was not detected. Three out of 25 American tumors other than American Burkitt's lymphoma contained 0.1 to 0.3 genomes per cell of EBV DNA.