Prevalence and Prognostic Molecular Profiles in Hepatitis B Virus Infected Patients with Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma: A Retrospective Study From Chinese Population

Meta-analysis demonstrated that B cell lymphoma appears to be at high risk of infection by Hepatitis B Virus (HBV). Recently, cohort study showed HBV infection is associated with the increasing risk of B cell type lymphoma. Retrospective studies demonstrated high prevalence of HBV infection in Chinese lymphoma patients, with HBsAg-positive rates ranging from 23.5% to 30.5%. HBsAg-positive Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) patients are associated with younger age and more advanced stage. However, the relation between HBV infection and poor prognosis in DLBCL remains uncertain. Molecular markers based on Immunohistochemical (IHC) expression were widely used as prognostic markers in DLBCL. Our study aimed to investigate the prevalence of HBVinfection in the different subtypes of lymphoma, and the molecular prognostic profiles in HBsAg-positive DLBCL.

From Jan 2008 to Dec 2010, a total of 672 patients diagnosed as lymphoma were tested for HBsAg. Of these, 399 were male and 273 were female; 426 were B-NHL, 216 were T-NHL and 30 were HL. The expressions of BCL-2, BCL-6, CD10, MUM-1 were tested in patients diagnosed with DLBCL.

We found the overall HBsAg-positive rate was 15.9% (107/672) in total lymphoma patients. The positive rate of HBsAg was higher in B-NHL patients (20%,85/426) than T-NHL(9.7%,21/216) and HL (3.3%,1/30) (P<0.001).The lower prevalence were observed several subtypes of lymphoma including mantle cell lymphoma (0/20, 0%), Burkett's lymphoma (0/13, 0%), HL (1/29, 3.3%) and PTCL (4/53, 7.5%).The rate of HBV infection was higher in DLBCL patients (20.9%, 68/326). Among prognostic molecular profiles in DLBCL, the positive expression rates of BCL-2, BCL-6, CD10 and MUM-1 were 65.4% (134/205), 51.3% (116/226), 17% (39/230) and 61.5% (139/226), respectively. The non-GCB subtype accounted of 68.7% of DLBCL. Between HBsAg negative and positive group of DLBCL, the positive expression rates of BCL-2 were 64.1% vs 69.2% (P=0.498), CD 10 were 16.6% v 18.2%(P=0.781), MUM-1 were 60.5% vs 64.8%(P=0.567). However, the BCL-6 positive rate was slight higher in HBsAg negative group compared with positive group (55% vs40%, P=0.053). Finally, non-GCB subtype rates were 67.7% vs 68.7% in HBsAg negative and positive group DLBCL.

Our date demonstrated that the infection rate of HBV was higher in DLBCL, whereas lower in the subtypes of mantle cell lymphoma, burkitt's lymphoma and HL. Based on IHC analysis, non-GCB subtype accounted of two-third of DLBCL in our series. Patients with HBsAg-positive DLBCL had lower positive rate of BCL-6. However, the expression of Bcl-2, CD10, MUM-1 seems no significant difference between patients with HBsAg-positive and negative DLBCL.

No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.