Hepatitis C infection is associated with hepatic toxicity but does not compromise the survival of patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma treated with rituximab-based chemotherapy

The influence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection on the outcome of patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) treated with rituximab-based chemotherapy is controversial. We retrospectively analyzed the characteristics and clinical outcomes of 168 patients with DLBCL diagnosed between January 2005 and December 2011. Twenty-nine patients who were HCV-positive before lymphoma treatment were compared with 139 patients who did not have HCV infection. The median follow-up duration was 3.0 (0.07-8.02) years. HCV infection resulted in more hepatic toxicity in both univariate (p = 0.001) and multivariate (p = 0.003) analyses. In addition, HCV-positive DLBCL patients were more likely to have treatment delay (20.1% vs. 0.7%, p < 0.001). For patients who developed hepatic toxicity during immunochemotherapy, HCV-positive patients had significantly higher folds of aspartate aminotransferase elevation (p = 0.042) and total bilirubin elevation (p = 0.012) compared with those who were HCV negative. However, HCV did not influence the 5-year progression-free survival rate (p = 0.412) or 5-year overall survival rate (p = 0.410). In conclusion, HCV infection is associated with increased hepatic toxicity and delayed chemotherapy without compromised survival in DLBCL patients treated with rituximab-based chemotherapy.