Association of Hepatitis Virus on Acute and Chronic Myeloid Leukemias. A pilot Study

Background The induction of cancers incidence by exogenous agents, such as chemical, radiation and especially research on viruses is an interested area of active basic subjects and clinical investigation. Prominent researches sounds a high prevalence of HBV marker has been found in patients with leukemia as compared to the general population. Present study was conducted from 1996 to 2010 among patients with chronic acute myeloid leukemia and corresponding with non malignant patients. In this investigation, Cytochemical staining, immunophenotyping, cytogenetic /molecular cytogenetics, Elisa, enzyme immunoassay and Western blot, were the main subject of laboratory manipulation. Hepatitis B virus was diagnosed in one non malignant control patient (%0.004) and four infected with leukemia patients (%3). The differences of leukemic patients revealed statistical significant when compared with non malignant patients (P=0.0047). In this pilot study, the prevalence of HBV infection was higher in patients with leukemia than in patients as non malignant patients. Our findings are also important as they are among the first to suggest here a potentially significant influence of HBV infection may plays a probably major role in the process of myeloid malignant development. However, the number of cases are not large enough to draw firm conclusion. Moreover, we suggest that this pilot study, issue warrants further investigation by large consortium project.