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Study Shows
Increased Risk of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and Other Nonhepatic Malignancies
in Swedish Patients with HCV Infection
The incidence of malignant non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) appears to be
increasing in recent years worldwide. In Sweden the large-scale spread of
hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection began in the late 1960s and 1970s. As a
result, there could be an emergence of increasingly larger numbers of
patients with HCV-related complications.
The report of a cluster of four NHL cases among young hepatitis C patients
in a HCV cohort of 554 individuals has raised the issue of a potential
association between NHL and HCV in Sweden.
The aim of the current study was to evaluate the association between
hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), multiple
myeloma (MM), thyroid cancer (TC), chronic lymphatic leukemia (CLL), acute
lymphatic leukemia (ALL), and Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL).
A Swedish cohort of 27,150 HCV-infected persons notified during 1990-2000
was included in the study. The database was linked to other national
registers to calculate the observation time, expressed as person-years, and
to identify all incident malignancies in the cohort.
The patients were stratified according to assumed time of previous HCV
infection.
During 1990-2000 there were 50 NHL, 15 MM, 14 ALL, 8 TC, 6 CLL, and 4 HL
diagnoses in the cohort. Altogether, 20 NHL, 7 MM, 5 TC, 4 CLL, 1 ALL, and 1
HL patient fulfilled the criteria to be included in the statistical
analysis. The observation time was 122,272 person-years.
The risk of NHL and MM was significantly increased in the stratum with more
than 15 years of infection. The association was not significant in TC or CLL.
In conclusion, the authors write, “We report the incidence of several
malignancies in a nationwide cohort of HCV-infected persons. Although the
delayed diagnosis of HCV probably has resulted in an underestimation of the
risk, this study showed a significantly increased risk of Non Hodgkin’s
lymphoma and multiple myeloma.”
Reference
A-S Duberg and others. Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and other nonhepatic
malignancies in Swedish patients with hepatitis C virus infection.
Hepatology 41(3): 652-659. March 2005.
Hepatitis C virus linked to non-hodgkin's
lymphoma
Category: Cancer/Oncology News
Article Date: 18 Oct 2004
Patients infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) are six times as likely
to develop non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) than individuals that are virus
free, according to research presented today at the Third Annual Frontiers in
Cancer Prevention Research meeting.
HCV infected patients have a seventeen fold higher risk for developing
diffuse large B-Cell lymphoma, researchers from British Columbia documented.
Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma is the most common variety of NHL, comprising
approximately 30 percent of all NHL patients.
Compared to Europe and Japan, incidence of hepatitis C viral infection is
fairly low in North America, and previous studies from Canada and the United
States have not shown an association between the virus and development of
NHL, said Ms Agnes Lai, lead author for the research. The British Columbia
study examined HCV status in 550 NHL cases and 205 population controls. The
study had the strength of numbers of patients to ascertain an association
between HCV and NHL, confirming the viral-cancer link suspected in studies
from other areas of the world where the virus is more prevalent.
"People who have been exposed to the virus comprise a high risk group for
developing non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, particularly diffuse b-cell lymphoma,"
said John Spinelli, a cancer researcher from the British Columbia Cancer
Agency, Vancouver, BC, and principal investigator of the research study.
The spread of hepatitis C in the United States has dropped significantly
since the 1980s. Currently, the number of new cases per year is around
25,000. Approximately 3.8 million Americans have been infected with the
virus. The most common means of infection in the past was blood transfusion,
and in recent years is among drug users who share needles.
Approximately 53,000 patients were diagnosed with NHL in the United States
in 2003. There were 23,000 deaths from the disease that year.
Spinelli and Lai conducted their research with colleagues Randy Gascoyne,
Joseph Connors, Pat Lee, Rozmin Janoo-Galani, and Richard Gallagher, BC
Cancer Agency; Anton Andonov, Health Canada National Microbiology
Laboratories, Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Darrel Cook, British Columbia Centre
for Disease Control.
Founded in 1907, the American Association for Cancer Research is a
professional society of more than 24,000 laboratory, translational, and
clinical scientists engaged in all areas of cancer research in the United
States and in more than 60 other countries. AACR's mission is to accelerate
the prevention and cure of cancer through research, education,
communication, and advocacy. Its principal activities include the
publication of five major peer-reviewed scientific journals: Cancer
Research; Clinical Cancer Research; Molecular Cancer Therapeutics; Molecular
Cancer Research; and Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. AACR's
Annual Meetings attract more than 15,000 participants who share new and
significant discoveries in the cancer field. Specialty meetings, held
throughout the year, focus on the latest developments in all areas of cancer
research.
Contact: Warren Froelich
communications@aacr.org
206-219-4772
American Association for Cancer Research
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