A Study on Burkitt’ S Lymphoma and Epstein-Barr Virus Latency in Duhok, Iraq

Background: Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) is the most common lymphoma in children and primarily, but certainly not exclusively, originates in the lymphoid tissue of the distal ileum.This study looks at the Epstein-Barr virus latency and C-MYC gene rearrangement in tumor cells from patients in Iraq's Duhok province.Methods: Between 2014 and 2020, archived surgical pathology tissue from thirty Kurdish patients diagnosed with BL in the Duhok region of northern Iraq was examined.Formalinfixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue blocks were used to make tissue microarrays (TMA), which were then studied using immunohistochemistry for a panel of lymphoma markers, insitu hybridization (ISH) for EBV-encoded RNAs (EBER1), and fluorescent in-situ hybridization (FISH) for C-MYC/IGH translocation.Results: The median age of patients was 7 years (3-22).Twenty-two were male and eight were female.Twenty-five patients had extra-nodal primaries, 21 of them had intrabdominal primaries, the ileocecal region accounted for all of the cases, and five had nodal primaries.All patients had c-MYC rearrangement in their tumors, whereas EBER1 was present in 22 (73%) of the tumors.Conclusion: This study reveals that Burkitt lymphoma in the Duhok region is a juvenile illness with a preference for the ileocecal region, as opposed to the United States and northern Europe, where it is regarded as an adult disease with a propensity for the lymph nodes.