Incidence and characteristics of non-hodgkin's lymphomas in HCV-positive patients with mixed cryoglobulinemia

Non-Hodgkin's lymphomas arise in HCV-positive patients with cryoglobulinemia at a frequency higher than in either the general matched population or in HCV-patients without cryoglobulinemia. The relevance of the cryogenic effect on the response to treatment and on prognosis has been poorly assessed with respect to the characteristics of this patient population, and the typical histological patterns linked to this situation have not been easily identifiable. In recent years, many biological findings have suggested a relevant role of the patient's genetic background in favoring the malignant evolution of this disease, in which the long-lasting presence of an antigen that induces the production of cryoprecipitating immune complexes drives the expansion of lymphoid tissue in a manner that is unstable and prone to evolve toward a lymphoid malignancy.