Diffuse B-Large Cell Lymphomas (DBLCL) with Hepatitis-C Virus (HCV) Infection: Clinical Outcome and Preliminary Results of a Pilot Study Combining R-CHOP with Antiviral Therapy.

Epidemiological studies indicate that HCV infection prevalence is higher in patients with B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas (B-NHL) than in general population or in other hematologic malignancies, thus contributing to confirm a possible pathogenetic role for HCV in lymphomagenesis. Such differences are particularly striking in Italian and Japanese populations, where it has been calculated that 5–12% of all B-NHL could be due to HCV. The relationship between HCV and B-NHL is stronger for some sub-types of low-grade B-NHL (immunocytomas and nodal/extranodal marginal zone lymphomas) where, interestingly, anti-viral therapy may induce regression of lymphoma. However, an association with HCV infection has been observed also within more aggressive histotypes, in particular in DBLCL. We evaluated the clinical outcome of 44 patients with DBLCL and concomitant HCV infection, diagnosed at our Institution from 1992 to 2000. These patients represented 19% of all 231 patients with DBLCL we observed throughout the same period. With respect to HCV- DLBCL, HCV+ DBLCL showed some distinctive clinico-pathological features, such as older age (61 vs 44 years, p