Hepatitis C virus - associated B cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

Table 1 Main therapeutical findings

Study findings	Ref.
Antiviral treatment should be indicated in order to prevent lymphoma occurrence	[2]
Low-grade malignant lymphomas can respond to antiviral therapy	[26,51]
Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma with high grade of malignancy need immuno-chemotherapy associated treatment	[7,15]
Antiviral treatment contributed to an improved outcome of HCV-infected patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma	[16]
Antiviral treatment could be an alternative to chemo-immunotherapy in some cases	[23]
Splenic marginal zone lymphoma is most frequently associated with HCV infection and can evolve favorably after HCV eradication	[53]
HCV-infected patients with indolent BCNHL who receive antiviral therapy can be potentially cured	[13]
Forty-four of HCV-infected patients with indolent BCNHL obtained a complete remission and 33% a partial response of lymphoma after antiviral therapy used as first-line treatment	[55]
Viral clearance was related to lymphoma response	[55]
The clinical response of lymphoma is dependent on HCV-RNA eradication	[14]
The combined treatment with peginterferon and ribavirin proved to be useful for the treatment of BCNHL	[56]
Repeated plasmapheresis are needed, if hyperviscosity is present, followed by antiviral ± cytostatic therapy	[24]
The administration of direct antiviral agents is useful in onset of therapy of patients with marginal zone BCNHL who have no severe complications, and early in those with diffuse large BCNHL in order to prevent the potential liver damage induced by the use of immunochemotherapy and avoid BCNHL relapse	[56]
A chronic HCV-infected patient with splenic marginal zone lymphoma obtained rapid viral clearance and his lymphoma was cured with an interferon-free regimen based on NS3-NS4A inhibitor	[57]
A HCV-infected female patient with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia received telaprevir-based triple therapy followed by successful result, without chronic lymphocytic leukaemia progression	[58]
HCV-infected diffuse large BCNHL patients had a higher liver toxicity induced by immunochemotherapy and a higher delay of their chemotherapy application	[59]
Severe liver toxicity (grade 3-4) was significantly more frequently found in diffuse large BCNHL patients infected with HCV treated also by immunotherapy compared with those treated only by chemotherapy	[60]
The liver toxicity of grade 3-4 was significantly more frequently found in HCV-infected patients with diffuse large BCNHL treated with chemo-immunotherapy and the progression-free survival and overall survival were significantly shorter in comparison with those who received only chemotherapy	[61]
Fourteen percent of HCV-infected patients with diffuse large BCNHL who received an anthracycline-based chemotherapy (with rituximab in 255 of them) developed severe liver toxicity	[50]
A patient with diffuse large BCNHL and HCV infection developed a cholestatic hepatitis C after chemoimmunotherapy	[62]
The addition of immunotherapy with rituximab can increase the viral replication	[13]
The final result of standard immunochemotherapy applied to diffuse large BCNHL patients with HCV infection is not less good compared to those without this infection	[13]
A solution to avoid a severe liver toxicity in patients with compensated HCV induced liver cirrhosis and indolent BCNHL is the combination of bendamustine with rituximab	[63]

HCV: Hepatitis C virus; BCNHL: B cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.