Retrospective study to assess the impact of hepatitis C virus infection on the prognosis and management of multiple myeloma.

Abstract

e20001 Background: Multiple Myeloma (MM) is a neoplasm of the post-germinal center, terminally differentiated B-cells. MM accounts for 1% of all types of cancer and 10% for all hematologic malignancies. Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an infection that affects over 71 million patients worldwide. Cytotoxic agents and immunosuppressive therapy as steroids are the main line of therapy in lymphoid malignancies, but these drugs may exacerbate chronic viral hepatitis and cause uncontrolled replication of hepatitis viruses. The impact of HCV infection on MM patients remains unclear. Objective: To assess the impact of HCV infection on the prognosis and management of MM patients. Methods: A 10-year retrospective study of MM patients was conducted at Cairo University Clinical Oncology Department from January 2009 to April 2019. Results: During this time, 150 patients were diagnosed with MM, 109 (72.7%) were HCV negative, 24 (16%) were HCV positive, and 17 (11.3%) with unknown HCV status. The median age was 51 and 54 years for HCV negative and positive groups respectively, with a statistically insignificant difference (p-value > 0.2). In the multivariate analysis, HCV infection was not an independent factor related to overall survival (OS), however age, creatinine and hemoglobin levels correlated significantly with OS (p < 0.009, 0.008, 0.031 respectively). The median OS for the HCV negative group was 31.11 months (95% CI: 22.62 - 39.61) compared to 37.66 months (95% CI: 7.19 - 68.13) for the HCV positive group. The median progression-free survival (PFS) for all patients was 18.9 months, for HCV positive patients was 15.36 months (95% CI: 13.18 – 17.54), and for HCV negative patients was 20.49 months (95% CI: 14.13 – 26.85). Age below 60 years and creatinine level less than 2 mg/dL were statistically significant for favorable disease-free survival (DFS) (p < 0.030, 0.034 respectively). Conclusions: Age, creatinine and hemoglobin levels are significant prognostic factors in MM but HCV status doesn’t affect the overall survival or progression-free survival. HCV infection should not contraindicate MM therapy.