[6] Patients with HCV infection who undergo HSCT or systematic chemotherapy including corticosteroids can experience severe hepatic dysfunction and fulminant hepatic failure (summarized in Table 2). 21 6 2 1 Corticosteroids have traditionally been associated with cases of HCV reactivation.[27, 36] HCV reactivation has been associated with several immunosuppressive and chemotherapeutic agents, including rituximab, alemtuzumab, bleomycin, busulfan, cisplatin, cyclophosphamide, cyclosporin, cytarabine, dacarbazine, doxorubicin, etoposide, gemcitabine, methotrexate, vinblastine and vincristine;[27, 37-44] however, many patients with HCV reactivation during

treatment with one of these drugs were simultaneously treated with corticosteroids.[38, 41, 42, 44, 45] In a study by Zuckerman et al.,[46] 18 of 33 (54%) patients had mild to moderate Adriamycin datasheet increases of ALT, which occurred 2–3 weeks after the withdrawal of chemotherapy. HCV positive patients did not demonstrate a higher incidence of severe hepatic dysfunction during chemotherapy for malignancies than HCV negative patients; however, liver test abnormalities during therapy are very GSI-IX in vivo common and are

seen in 54% HCV positive patients and in 36% HCV negative patients. Whether corticosteroid therapy alone or in combination with other agents leads to reactivation of HCV infection and acute exacerbation of chronic HCV infection remains to be determined. A Casein kinase 1 possible relationship between rituximab and HCV reactivation in patients with cancer has been reported.[41, 44, 45] Only the administration of rituximab-containing chemotherapy was associated with both acute exacerbation and reactivation of chronic HCV infection.[24] Ennishi et al. also showed that the incidence of severe hepatic toxicity in

HCV positive patients was significantly higher than in HCV negative patients, and HCV infection was determined to be a strong risk factor for this adverse effect in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) in the rituximab era.[44] These hepatic toxicities led to modification and discontinuation of immunochemotherapy, resulting in lymphoma progression. The study described that careful monitoring of hepatic function should be recommended for HCV positive patients, particularly those with high levels of pretreatment transaminase. More importantly, monitoring of HCV viral load demonstrated a marked enhancement of HCV replication, and it is suggested that increased HCV results in severe hepatic toxicity. Thus, HCV viral load should be carefully monitored in HCV positive patients who receive immunochemotherapy. The health consensus regarding HCV reactivation seems to be less severe than that of HBV reactivation (summarized in Table 3).