Relationship between hepatitis B virus infection and B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma

Objective To evaluate the association between B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and hepatitis B virus (HBV).Methods The positive rates of HBV markers in 284 patients of B-cell NHL who were admitted to our department between January 2003 and December 2009 were investigated.The positive rates of HBV markers in colorectal cancer patients were used as controls.Results The HBsAg-positive rates of patients aged 18～ 39 and stage m/Ⅳ patients were 42.6 ％ (26/61) and 37.0 ％ (50/135),which was higher than other groups.The x2 value and P value were 7.573 and 6.874,0.023 and 0.009,respectively.Compared with the control group, the B-cell NHL had significantly higher prevalence of positive HBsAg and positive HBeAg (29.6 ％ vs 14.5 ％,6.7 ％ vs 0.8 ％ ).The Wald values were 25.174 and 20.496,respectively.Both of the P value were ＜0.001 and lower prevalence of positive anti-HBs (45.4 ％ vs 58.0 ％,Wald =11.062,P =0.001).The coexpression of HBsAg, HBeAg and anti-HBc was higher in the B-NHL group than in the control group (6.0 ％ vs 0.8 ％,x2 =31.619,P ＜0.001).Similarly,the coexpression of HBsAg,anti-HBe,and anti-HBc was higher in the B-NHL group (16.2 ％ vs 11.5 ％,x2 =4.542,P =0.033).Significantly higher rate of positive anti-HBc and negative anti-HBs was observed in the B-NHL group (37.0 ％ vs 24.5 ％,Wald =17.708,P ＜ 0.001),whereas the same group showed a lower rate of negative anti-HBs compared with the control group (20.8 ％ vs 27.8 ％, Wald =5.646, P =0.017).Conclusion This finding of a positive association between HBV infection and B-NHL suggests that HBV may play an etiologic role in the induction of B-NHL. Key words: Lymphoma, non-Hodgkin; Hepatitis B virus; Infection