Abstract:
Objective:To differentiate hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection from hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection among different indolent B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL)subtypes. The correlation between indolent B-NHL and hepatitis viral infection was also investi-gated. Methods:A total of 733 indolent B-NHL patients from January 1994to January 2014with integrated clinical information were retrospectively investigated. We compared the hepatitis viral infection between the general population and indolent B- NHL patients. We analyzed the infection rate of hepatitis virus in the different indolent B-NHL subtypes and examined their correlations.Results:The HBs-Ag positive rate of the indolent B-NHL was7. 9%, which was not significantly different with that of the general population ( 7. 9% vs . 7. 2%,P=0. 548 ). Among the different indolent B-NHL subtypes, the 48splenic marginal zone lymphoma (SMZL) patients exhibited the highest HBs-Ag positive rate, which was significantly higher than those of the general population ( 18. 8% vs . 7. 2%, P=0. 002 ), other indo-lent B-NHL subtypes (18. 8% vs . 7. 2%,P=0. 004 ), and other marginal zone B cell lymphoma (MZL) patients (18. 8% vs . 7. 1%,P=0. 005 ). The HBs-Ag positive rates between other B-NHL subtypes and the general population were not significantly different. The coexpression of HBs-Ag, HBe-Ag, and anti-HBc-Ab exhibited no significant difference among the various B-NHL subtypes. However, the co-expres-sion of HBs-Ag, HBe-Ab, and anti-HBc-Ab was significantly higher in the SMZL group than the other B-NHL subtypes (16. 7% vs . 4. 7%, P< 0. 001 ).The positive rate of the anti-hepatitis C virus antibody (HCV-Ab) was 1. 9% in 733 indolent B-NHL patients, which was significant -ly higher than in the general population ( 1. 9% vs . 0. 4%, P<0. 001 ). The HCV-Ab positive rates in the chronic lymphocytic leukemia, lym - phoplasmacytic lymphoma/Waldenström macroglobulinemia, SMZL, hairy cell leukemia, nodal marginal zone B-cell lymphoma group were2. 2%, 2. 5%, 4. 2%, 3%, and 3. 7%, respectively. These values were significantly higher than those of the general population. Prevalence rates of HCV in B-cell lymphoproliferative disorders, unclassified, extranodal marginal zone B-cell lymphoma of mucosa-associat ed tissue lymphoma, B-cell prolymphocytic leukemia, and follicular lymphoma groups were not significantly different compared with the general population. Conclusion: Prevalence rate of HBV was higher in the SMZL group than other indolent B- NHL groups, which suggests that HBV infection may play an etiologic role in SMZL.