Hepatitis C Virus Cryoglobulinemia and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

CONTEXT: On the strength of epidemiological data,biological studies, and clinical findings, hepatitis C virus appears to be involved in the pathogenesis of a proportion of patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and cryoglobulinemia. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this paper is to review the published literature focused on the current knowledge concerning hepatitis C virus and its potential role in the production of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and cryoglobulinemia in susceptible individuals. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: In this review, databases such as pubMed, embase, ISI, and Iranian databases including Iranmedex, and SID were searched. RESULTS: The results of this review indicate that HCV infection may be a likely cause of various B cell dysregulation disorders such as non-Hodgkin lymphoma and cryoglobulinemia. CONCLUSION: Based on current findings, it has been hypothesized that NHL and cryoglobulinemia in HCV infection may have an immune-mediated pathogenesis. In HCV infected patients, we showed an elevated risk of these two diseases. These finding suggested a possible role for chronic hepatitis C in the pathogenesis of NHL and cryoglobulinemia.