HCV AND LYMPHOPROLIFERATIVE DISORDERS

Mixed cryoglobulinemia is considered a lymphoproliferative disorder ch aracterized by several clinical symptoms (arthralgias, purpura and wea kness) and often by organ involvement. Recently, evidence of hepatitis C virus infection in the majority of these patients has been shown, e ven in absence of clinical and/or laboratory signs of chronic liver di sease, suggesting that this virus could be the main etiologic agent of mixed cryoglobulinemia. Finally, HCV has revealed a lymphotropism bot h in vitro and in vivo. On the basis of these findings, the systematic identification of HCV in different hematological diseases revealed an increased prevalence of HCV infection in non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, esp ecially in immunocytomas, The present work offers an overview of a lar ge number of experimental and clinical observations supporting the pos sible involvement of HCV in human lymphoproliferative disease.