Lymphoma and the Microenvironmental Cross-Talk between Sex Hormone Receptors and Epstein-Barr Virus in Predicting Lymphoma Clinical Status

Lymphoma is a significant clinical entity because of its high incidence and complicated etiology and pathology. In this chapter, we discussed lymphoma in general and made focus in our previous studies in which we found unique features linking the interaction of EBV with sex steroid hormones in lymphoma cells. Sex steroid hormones included estrogen receptor and progesterone receptors that were investigated for their expression in malignant lymphoid cells. The localization of EBV in malignant lymphoid cells was also investigated. The two main types of lymphoma, Hodgkin Lymphoma, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, were investigated for the interaction of EBV with sex steroid hormones. Unique features were obtained in terms of a bridge-linking estrogen receptor with EBV in Hodgkin lymphoma and progesterone receptor with EBV in non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The interactions between EBV and lymphoma are classic, but the reasons beyond this are not well established. The results of our studies highlighted new features by the existence of expressed sex steroid receptors. We think that the dissociation of combination between sex steroid hormones and EBV bears the link to design new therapeutic strategies for lymphoma