Lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma of the lung.

A 47-year-old Caucasian female was admitted to the hospital with a suspicious lesion in the right lower lobe of the lung. At frozen tissue sections a malignant tumour was found which, after special stains and immunohistochemical investigations, was diagnosed as lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma. Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and metastasis of a nasopharygeal carcinoma could be excluded by immunohistochemical stains and clinical examination. The tumour cells and the infiltrating lymphocytes were negative for Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) as revealed by in situ hybridization (ISH) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). A reevaluation of the literature showed an interesting and surprising fact: in all lung cases, so far reported, the tumour cells were positive for EBV in Asians and negative in Caucasians. Due to the high prevalence of EBV infections in the Asian population it might be speculated, that EBV positivity could be an epiphenomenon in Asian cases of lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma of the lung.