Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and Hepatitis C Virus Infection

Abstract

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a recently described and important cause of acute and chronic liver disease. A hallmark of HCV is its propensity to become chronic, some patients with chronic HCV progressing to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). HCV is also lymphotrophic and we report 2 patients with HCV cirrhosis who developed non-Hodgkins lymphoma (NHL). These cases raise the possibility that chronic HCV infection of lymphocytes plays an aetiological role in this malignancy. However screening of a further 63 consecutive patients over the age of 50 years with NHL for HCV antibody by second generation enzyme linked immunoassay (ELISA) failed to identify any patients with evidence of HCV infection. This suggests that HCV is an uncommon contributory factor for the development of non-Hodgkins lymphoma in the United Kingdom.

Detection of hepatitis C virus RNA in paraffin‐embedded tissues from patients with non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma

“…The first studies came from Italy, and studies from France, Japan, the United States, and England followed. HCV prevalence in these series was between 0.004% and 33% [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. The lowest prevalence was found in a British study, where 1 out of 268 lymphoma patients had tumors positive for HCV.…”

Does the hepatitis C virus replicate in cells of the hematopoietic lineage?

“…74,75 Thus, the mechanisms leading to the development of a fully malignant form of B-cell non-Hodgkin' s lymphoma may involve local factors, including cytokine secretion, or factors independent of HCV, such as Helicobacter pylori. 76 The presence of a clear geographical heterogeneity in the prevalence of HCVpositive non-Hodgkin lymphomas 77,78 indicates that other genetic and environmental cofactors must be sought to explain the pathogenesis of these lymphoproliferative disorders. In the absence of clear evidence that the transformed lymphocytes are infected by HCV, the pathogenesis of HCVassociated lymphomas is uncertain.…”

Prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection in patients with lymphoproliferative disorders in Southern Turkey

“…In another study done by Izumi et al (1996), anti-HCV was not detected in any case of non-B-cell NHL and HD, whereas 12 of 54 (22.2%) cases of B-cell NHL were positive for HCV antibody. In three studies from the UK the evidence of HCV infection using anti-HCV antibody and/or HCV-RNA was not detected (Brind et al, 1996;Hanley et al, 1996;McColl et al, 1996). In a study done by Musto et al (1996) the prevalence of HCV as evaluated by both serological and/or molecular analysis in a large group of LPDs, was found to be higher in 150 patients with MM compared to the controls (12.6 vs 5.4%).…”