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Pegylated‐interferon plus ribavirin for HCV‐positive indolent non‐Hodgkin lymphomas
Author(s) -
Mazzaro Cesare,
De Re Valli,
Spina Michele,
Dal Maso Luigino,
Festini Gianluca,
Comar Consuelo,
Tirelli Umberto,
Pozzato Gabriele
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
british journal of haematology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.907
H-Index - 186
eISSN - 1365-2141
pISSN - 0007-1048
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2141.2008.07565.x
Subject(s) - medicine , lymphoproliferative disorders , immunology , hepatitis c virus , ribavirin , pegylated interferon , lymphoma , hepatitis c , hbsag , virology , virus , hepatitis b virus
This study confirms previous observations of the efficacy of antiviral treatment in the HCV-related B-NHL. A complete remission of the haematological as well as the infectious disease was observed in a large fraction of patients. This approach is not cytotoxic, and therefore, additional conventional chemotherapies are not precluded in non-responders. The haematological response, as well as immunological and clinical responses, was related to the disappearance of HCV-RNA. Unlike Vallisa et al (2005), we used the standard dose of PEG-IFN (1·5 μg/kg), but this did not determine a significantly higher SVR. The resistance of these patients to antiviral therapy is also indicated by the absence of ‘early virological responses’ (HCV-RNA undetectable at the 4th week of therapy) even among the genotype 2 carriers. Finally, this study shows that, as well as in HCV-positive chronic hepatitis, PEG-IFN + RIBA seems more powerful than IFN + RIBA, but the low number of cases prevents definitive conclusions