Lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma of the larynx associated with an Epstein-Barr viral infection

Abstract

L ymphoepithelioma is a term used to describe undifferentiated squamous cell carcinoma variants of nasopharyngeal neoplasms (WHO type 3). Correlations between lymphoepithelioma and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) have been investigated with serologic1 and pathologic evaluation. 2 , 3 Recently, nonnasopharyngeal neoplasms, which have morphologic features identical to those of lymphoepithelioma, called lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma (LEC), have been reported in other anatomic sites. 4 – 10 Seven cases of laryngeal LEC have been reported in the English literature to date, but EBV has yet to be detected in laryngeal LEC. In this article, LEC in the epiglottis of the larynx is described with cellular localization of EBV-encoded immediate-early RNAs (BHLF) in the tumor cells of the larynx. This case report is the first to show laryngeal LEC associated with an EBV infection.