Hepatitis Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Hepatitis, including details on hepatitis a, b, c, causes, symptoms.

Hepatitis C virus and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in British Columbia, Canada.

Spinelli JJ, Lai AS, Krajden M, Andonov A, Gascoyne RD, Connors JM, Brooks-Wilson AR, Gallagher RP

BC Cancer Agency, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. jspinelli@bccrc.ca

We investigated Hepatitis C virus (HCV) seropositivity and the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in a population-based case-control study in British Columbia, Canada. Cases were aged 20-79, diagnosed between March 2000 and February 2004, and resident in greater Vancouver or Victoria. Cases with HIV or a prior transplant were excluded. Controls were chosen from the Client Registry of the British Columbia (BC) Ministry of Health, and were age/sex/region frequency matched to cases. Antibodies for HCV were measured in 795 cases and 697 control subjects. HCV seropositivity was 2.4% in cases and 0.7% in controls [odds ratio (OR) = 2.6, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.9-7.4]. A significantly elevated risk was observed for B-cell lymphoma (OR = 2.9, 95%CI = 1.0-8.6). The highest risks were associated with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (OR = 7.3, 95%CI = 2.1-25.0) and marginal zone lymphoma (OR = 6.1, 95%CI = 1.1-33.9). Our results provide further evidence that HCV infection contributes to NHL risk.

Published 6 December 2007 in Int J Cancer, 122(3): 630-3.
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