Association of Viral Infections with Risk of Human Lymphomas, Egypt

The aim of this study was to determine and evaluate the association of different viral infections, with hepatitis B and C viruses, Epstein-Barr virus, cytomegalovirus and human herpes virus-8 (HBV, HCV, EBV, CMV, HHV-8) with the risk of lymphomas (Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin) among Egyptian patients, and correlate with the histopathological staging and typing as well as the prevalence of combined infections.

A total of 100 newly diagnosed lymphoma patients with 100 healthy age and sex matched normal controls were assayed for viral infection using enzyme linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA) followed by real time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).

Our results showed a high statistical significant difference between cases and controls as regards clinical and laboratory findings (<0.001 and=0.003). A high statistical difference was seen for the association of most viruses and lymphoma cases (<0.001) except for positive HBs Ag, positive CMV IgG and HHV-8 (p=0.37, 0.70 and 1.0 respectively). No statistical significant difference was found between Hodgkin (HL) and non-Hodgkin (NHL) as regards viral prevalence except HCV antigen, 57.1% for HL and 26.5% for NHL (p = 0.03). Only, HBV DNA showed a high significant value among infiltrated bone marrow cases (p=0.003) and finally, a high significant association of 2 combined viral infections with infiltrated bone marrow lymphoma cases (p=0.04).

Our results showed that infection with HBV, HCV, CMV and EBV were associated with increased risk of lymphoma among the Egyptian population. Detection of new associations between infectious agents and risk of cancer development will facilitate progress in elaboration of prophylactic measures, early diagnostic methods and, hopefully, novel therapy of malignant tumours.