Extrahepatic cancers and chronic HCV infection

Chronic HCV infection is a systemic disease resulting in hepatic and extrahepatic manifestationsGlobally, approximately 15% of human cancers are related to infectious agents such as HCVB cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) is associated with HCV infection (relative risk of ∼1.5) and is related to chronic antigenic stimulation and to a lesser extent to direct transformation associated with virus presenceAntiviral therapies enable a sustained virologic and haematological response in two-thirds of patients with HCV-related NHLHCV also infects extrahepatic cells and could induce chronic qualitative and quantitative alterations of the immune repertoire and local tissue microenvironment, which could induce various non-liver cancersChronic HCV infection is generally accepted to increase the risk of NHL and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, and studies of other cancers that take confounding factors into account are warranted