Since its discovery as the cause of infectious mononucleosis in 1964, the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) has been etiologically implicated in an increasing number of human diseases. Generally considered the first human oncogenic virus because of a number of studies linking it with Burkitt's lymphoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), as well as its documented oncogenicity in nonhuman primates, EBVhas served as a model for identifying subsequent candidate oncogenic viruses and the stimulus for Evans' revision of the Henle-Koch postulates to accommodate the problems in proving viral oncogenicity in humans. Research on the role of EBV in human cancer was particularly en hanced (a) by the pioneering work of Werner and Gertrude Henle, and (b) by the coordinated efforts of the Special Virus Leukemia Program and its successors, the Special Virus Cancer Program and the Virus Cancer Program of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Initiated by Dr. Frank J. Rauscher, who subsequently became director of the Ncr and is now Vice-President of the American Cancer Society, and expanded by Dr. John B. Moloney, whose contributions to cancer research were honored at this Second International Symposium on EBV and Associated Malignant Diseases, these NCI contract-sup ported programs brought together investigators from all over the world to participate in a joint effort to unravel the mystery of EBV behavior and pathogenicity. It was these programs that gave us the opportunity to work with such outstanding people as Professor Yohei Ito, to whom this book is dedicated."

It has been slightly more than two decades since the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) was discovered by Prof. M.A. Epstein and his colleagues at the University of Bristol in their search for the causative agent of Burkitt's lymphoma. For several years EBV was a "virus in search of a disease." The first documentation that EBV was pathogenic for humans was in 1969 when Drs. Gertrude and Werner Henle identified it as the causative agent for infectious mononucleosis. Seroepidemiologic and biochemical studies subsequently linked EBV to Burkitt's lymphoma (BL), nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), and more recently to the X-linked lymphoproliferative syndrome. With its widespread pattern of infection and a predilection for producing clinical signs and symptoms in only certain individuals, EBV has provided a model for many other candidate oncogenic viruses, including papilloma viruses, herpes simplex, and HTLV/LAV. In 1975, an international workshop was sponsored by the National Cancer Institute to address the problem of EBV production, thus facilitating basic research on the virus. This proved to be the last international meeting on EBV for almost a decade. In the past, progress in both clinical and basic research on EBV has been presented in two types of international meetings, the international herpesvirus workshops devoted primarily to basic research on both human and animal herpesviruses, and the international symposia on NPC, in which EBV-related studies were interspersed with clinical, epidemiologic and other etiologic aspects of this important human neoplasm.

Since its discovery as the cause of infectious mononucleosis in 1964, the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) has been etiologically implicated in an increasing number of human diseases. Generally considered the first human oncogenic virus because of a number of studies linking it with Burkitt's lymphoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), as well as its documented oncogenicity in nonhuman primates, EBVhas served as a model for identifying subsequent candidate oncogenic viruses and the stimulus for Evans' revision of the Henle-Koch postulates to accommodate the problems in proving viral oncogenicity in humans. Research on the role of EBV in human cancer was particularly en hanced (a) by the pioneering work of Werner and Gertrude Henle, and (b) by the coordinated efforts of the Special Virus Leukemia Program and its successors, the Special Virus Cancer Program and the Virus Cancer Program of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Initiated by Dr. Frank J. Rauscher, who subsequently became director of the Ncr and is now Vice-President of the American Cancer Society, and expanded by Dr. John B. Moloney, whose contributions to cancer research were honored at this Second International Symposium on EBV and Associated Malignant Diseases, these NCI contract-sup ported programs brought together investigators from all over the world to participate in a joint effort to unravel the mystery of EBV behavior and pathogenicity. It was these programs that gave us the opportunity to work with such outstanding people as Professor Yohei Ito, to whom this book is dedicated."