Clinical and epidemiologic study of hepatitis C virus infection among patients with non-Hodjkin’s lymphoma

Although a high prevalence of HCV infection among B cell non-Hodjkin’s lymphoma (NHL) patients had been reported in the early studies on the topic, subsequent epidemiologic studies conducted to examine the association between HCV infection and B cell NHL have provided inconsistent results. This study aimed at elucidating the prevalence of HCV infection among patients with B cell NHL, assessing the hepatic sequelae of HCV infection in patients with B cell NHL and clarifying some of the oncologic characteristics of HCV associated B cell NHL. This case-control study enrolled 50 patients from Tropical medicine department and Oncology unit affiliated to Internal medicine department of Zagazig University hospitals and 50 age and gender matched healthy volunteers. All study participants were subjected to history taking, thorough physical examination, pelviabdominal US, blood samples for testing of CBC, LFT, INR and HCV Ab. HCV RNA PCR was done for all patients and for HCV Ab +ve controls. Diagnosis of B cell NHL in patients was confirmed by immunophenotyping. Blood samples from patients and HCV positive controls were tested for cryoglobulins.Results: In this study, HCV infection occurred in 36% of patients with B cell NHL compared to 12% of controls. HCV infection showed no stastistically significant difference between histologic types of B cell NHL. HCV associated B cell NHL tends to be aggressive and tends to affect extranodal sites but the statistical difference is not significant. There was a stastistically significant difference in ALT levels between HCV positive patients and HCV positive controls. There was no stastistically significant difference in cryoglobulinemia between HCV positive patients and HCV negative patients and between HCV positive patients and HCV positive controls.