Pegylated-interferon plus ribavirin for HCV-positive indolent non-Hodgkin lymphomas

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.