Prognostic analysis of acute exacerbations of hepatitis-B after chemotherapy in combination with rituximab in 19 patients with lymphoma

The prognosis and management of acute exacerbations of hepatitis-B in patients with lymphoma after chemotherapy in combination with rituximab remain unclear. Here, we describe 19 Chinese patients with lymphoma who suffered this complication, in order to analyze their clinical characteristics. Receiver operating characteristic analysis and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis were utilized to determine potential prognostic factors. We found that key prognostic factors included the peak prothrombin time (PT), international normalized ratio (INR), and total bilirubin (TB), as well as the PT and INR on admission and the interval between acute exacerbation of hepatitis-B and the last cycle of chemotherapy. Moreover, our data suggested that shorter interval between the last cycle of rituximab and acute exacerbation of hepatitis-B might be another prognostic indicator of inferior survival. Our results revealed that the severity of hepatic damage and the interval between the last cycle of chemotherapy and hepatitis flare were the major prognostic factors of an acute exacerbation of hepatitis-B induced by immunochemotherapy. Prophylactic antiviral and rescue antiviral therapy remain to be further characterized.