Objectives: To identify the frequency of HCV infection among patients with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) and Hodgkin’s disease (HD).
Subjects and Methods: The study involved 152 patients; 111 with NHL and 41 with HD proved by lymph node biopsy and a control group of 50 individuals attending the internal medicine outpatient clinic of Sohag University hospital. ELISA technique was used for detection of antibodies against HCV. HCV RT-PCR was used to detect the presence of viral RNA in blood.
Results: HCV antibody positivity was significantly higher (p = 0.017) in NHL (36%) and HD (31.7%) groups compared to the control group (14%). There was no significant difference in HCV antibody positivity between NHL and HD groups (p = 0.495). Using RT-RCR, HCV RNA was detected in 8 control subjects, 44 patients with NHL and 12 patients with HD (p = 0.011).
Conclusion: Despite the high prevalence of HCV in the general population in Egypt, HCV is significantly more frequent in patients with NHL and HD. Further larger studies are needed to establish this epidemiological relationship between HCV and lympho-proliferative disorders.