No Association Between Lymphoma and Hepatitis C Virus

Abstract

Several epidemiological studies have associated the presence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) with the development of B-cell malignant lymphoma. However, in areas where the prevalence of HCV is low, this association has not been demonstrated. The aim of this study was to established the prevalence of HCV in patients with B-cell malignant lymphoma. The study was performed in 416 patients with new, previously untreated B-cell malignant lymphoma (236 diffuse large cell [DLC], 97 follicular lymphoma, and 83 marginal B-cell zone malignant lymphoma) and 1902 cases (682 first-degree relatives, 832 healthy blood donors, and 408 patients with solid tumors); furthermore, 353 patients with chronic liver disease associated to HCV were the control groups. We found a prevalence of 0.48 positive HCV among malignant lymphoma, 0.12 for healthy blood donors, 0 in first-degree relatives, and 0.56 in patients with solid tumors, that were statistically significant. The odds ratio was 1.86 and its confidence interval included the equality. None of the patients with chronic liver disease and HCV developed malignant lymphoma in a median follow-up of 7.9 yr. We felt that the presence of HCV is not significant in the development of malignant lymphoma, and that reports of high prevalence were associated also to a high prevalence of HCV in the general population and this association will be considered hazardous.

HCV non-structural protein 3 and HCV RNA genome in non-Hodgkin lymphoma and transition of the serum HCV RNA level: a retrospective analysis in one institution

“…Some studies have shown that NHL occurs at high frequency in HCV-Abpositive cases [4][5][6][7][8], while other studies have shown that the incidence of NHL in HCV-Ab-positive cases is not high [9][10][11]. In a hospital-based case-control study by Mele et al, which included 400 HCV-Ab-positive cases and 396 HCV-Ab-negative cases, it was found that B-NHL occurred in 17.5% of the HCV-Ab-positive cases and in 5.6% of the HCV-Ab-negative cases, and it was concluded that there is an association between B-NHL and HCV infection [12].…”

Risk of malignant lymphoma following viral hepatitis infection

“…Diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) [12], and particularly its splenic and gastric localization [7], and gastric mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma [8] have shown the strongest epidemiological association. Uncertainties deriving from negative results in Turkey [13], Lebanon [14], Mexico [15], the US NCI-SEER multi-center casecontrol study [16], and Switzerland [17] have been linked to the use of blood donors and hospital controls [2], weakness of the association, low prevalence of the HCV infection in numerous countries [18,19], with only a minority of HCV carriers developing lymphoma [19], and geographical variation in co-factors, such as viral genotype, population genetics and/or environmental co-factors [19]. More recently, the publication of the results of the large multicentre European EPILYMPH study [12] confirmed the positive association, corroborated by a statistical power much greater than previous reports.…”