IMPACT OF HEPATITIS-C VIRUS-INFECTION ON CLINICAL-FEATURES, QUALITY-OF-LIFE AND SURVIVAL OF PATIENTS WITH LYMPHOPLASMACYTOID LYMPHOMA IMMUNOCYTOMA/

Background: The non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) subgroup most frequently associated with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is the lymphoplasmac ytoid lymphoma/immunocytoma (Lp-Ic). Wie have assessed the impact of t he infection on the clinical features, quality of life and survival of HCV+ve Lp-Ic patients as compared to its impact in HCV-ve patients. P atients and methods. Seventy patients with Lp-Ic consecutively observe d over a six-year period were studied, Clinical, virological and histo pathological features were recorded at diagnosis. Quality of life was assessed using a scoring system including disease-related symptoms, pe rformance status, working ability, hospital admissions and therapies r equired. Results. Eighteen patients (26%) with HCV infection were iden tified. Significant differences between those patients and the HCV-ve group included number of symptomatic patients, Hb levels, serum protei n levels, entity of the IgM monoclonal component, number of patients w ith cryoglobulins and with organ (liver, kidney) involvement, and enti ty and pattern of bone marrow infiltration. Survival rates were simila r (P = 0.8383), but the quality-of-life score was significantly worse for the HCV+ve patients (P = 0.002). All anti-HCV Ab+ve patients teste d positive for HCV RNA: genotype 2ac was detected in a significant pro portion of cases. Conclusions: This study confirms that HCV infection is present in about one-third of patients with Lp-Ic. HCV infection do es not seem to affect the overall survival of patients with Lp-Ic, but it affects the clinical expression of the disease, so that the overal l quality of life of HCV+ve patients is significantly worse.