Monitoring serum hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA in patients with HCV‐infected CD20‐positive B‐cell lymphoma undergoing rituximab combination chemotherapy
Open Access
- 21 August 2007
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in American Journal of Hematology
- Vol. 83 (1), 59-62
- https://doi.org/10.1002/ajh.21022
Abstract
Several studies have shown that the frequency of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is high in patients with B‐cell non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). In these studies, liver dysfunction during chemotherapy has been demonstrated, but changes in HCV ribonucleic acid (RNA) levels during chemotherapy have not been well documented. In this study, we monitored serum HCV RNA levels and liver function in five HCV‐infected patients with B‐cell NHL undergoing treatment with rituximab‐combination chemotherapy. Increased HCV RNA levels during or after the chemotherapy were observed in all five patients, and a significant increase in transaminases was seen in one case. In this case, serum HCV RNA level dramatically decreased at the time of the increase of transaminases, and this suggested that the cause of liver damage was an immune reaction against hepatocytes with HCV and not any anticancer drug induced liver toxicity. Monitoring of serum HCV RNA levels and transaminases may be helpful to understand the cause of liver dysfunction in patients receiving chemotherapy. However, increases of HCV viral load were not associated with the occurrence of liver dysfunction in this study. Further studies will be necessary to investigate more fully the relationship between changes in HCV viral load and liver function during chemotherapy for HCV‐infected patients. Am. J. Hematol., 2008.Keywords
This publication has 28 references indexed in Scilit:
- Hepatitis C and Risk of Lymphoma: Results of the European Multicenter Case-Control Study EPILYMPHGastroenterology, 2006
- Accelerated hepatitis C virus replication with rituximab treatment in a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patientInternational Journal of Laboratory Hematology, 2006
- HCV genotype 2 as a risk factor for reactivation of chronic HCV infectionGut, 2005
- Hepatitis reactivation and liver failure in haemopoietic stem cell transplants for hepatitis B virus (HBV)/hepatitis C virus (HCV) positive recipients: a retrospective study by the Italian group for blood and marrow transplantationBone Marrow Transplantation, 2003
- Prophylaxis of hepatitis B reactivation using lamivudine in a patient receiving rituximabAmerican Journal of Hematology, 2001
- Reactivation of precore mutant hepatitis B virus in chemotherapy-treated patientsCancer, 2001
- Hepatitis C virus genotypes and liver disease in patients undergoing allogeneic bone marrow transplantationBone Marrow Transplantation, 1997
- An algorithm for the grading of activity in chronic hepatitis CHepatology, 1996
- Additional neoplasms and HCV infection in low-grade lymphoma of MALT typeBritish Journal of Haematology, 1996
- Case Report: Fulminant Hepatitis C Viral Infection After Allogeneic Bone Marrow TransplantationThe American Journal of the Medical Sciences, 1992