Descriptive epidemiology of non-Hodgkin lymphomas in a southwestern Frenchhematology center: absence of significant relationship with Hepatitis C virus infection

From January 1995 to Tune 1998, 136 new cases of non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL s) were seen in our center which serves all the French Basque Country (3000 00 inhabitants). The crude and standardized incidence rates were respective ly 13.2 and 7.6 cases/100000/year. The distribution of histologic subtypes according to the REAL classification showed a good correlation with the pre vious published data. Eleven patients (8%) were HIV-positive and two (1.4%) were HCV carriers. Hence, in our region, contrary to Italy, there is no ev idence of relationship between HCV and NHLs.