Established from the pleural effusion of a 60-year-old man with refractory immunoblastic B cell lymphoma progressed from follicular centroblastic/centrocytic lymphoma in 1990; cells were described to carry the t(14;18) leading to IGH@-BCL2 (IGH-BCL2) fusion gene and to express BCL2 mRNA; the original culture was a mixture of EBV - and EBV + cells, of which the EBV - cells were isolated and clonally expanded