Is There any Correlation between Ki67 Expression and EBV Infection in Hodgkin Patients in Iran?

Background and Objective: The association of EBV with Hodgkin Lymphoma (HL) has been intensely investigated over the last few years. EBV is also associated with several other malignancies. On the other hand, Ki67 molecule serves as a widely accepted proliferation marker. Several studies were previously performed about the expression of Ki67 in HD. This study tried to detect the correlation between Ki67 expressions with chronic EBV infection in HD patients of Iran by attenuating confounding factors. Materials and Methods: Hodgkin patients were divided into two groups regarding their EBV infection status. The case and control groups were matched for the stage of the disease. Immunohistochemical methods were used to detect Ki67 expression while DNA extraction and PCR amplification were performed to indicate chronic EBV infection. Results: Clinicopathologic criteria of two groups including male to female ratio, age, presence of B symptoms, and pathologic subtypes were not significantly different. Ki67 expressed in 21% of EBV infected cells while 30% of EBV negative cells had this marker. There was also no statistically significant difference between these two groups. Conclusion: After omitting the possible effect of confounding factors such as the presence of other malignancies and advanced disease stage, there was no correlation between Ki67 expression and EBV infection in Hodgkin patients in this study.