The prevalence of occult HBV Infection among Patients with solid and non-solid Tumors under Chemotherapy in Zanjan Province

Background and Objectives: There are about 350 million carriers of hepatitis B (HBV) worldwide. Due to the suppressing of the immune system in the course of chemotherapy, the immune system status changes to HBV infection. Re-activation of the hepatitis B virus is a prevalent consequence of chemotherapy in 21 to 53% of the HBsAg carriers that has a heavy fatality rate despite antiviral treatment. The HBV replication is the result of immunosuppression by chemotherapy. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of anti-HBc, HBsAg and occult HBV infections in patients with solid non-solid tumors treated with chemotherapy drugs. Materials and Methods: 342 blood samples were rolled up from the oncology and chemotherapy sectors and Valiasr hospital in Zanjan during 2015-2017. After the blood collection from targeted patient samples was centrifuged and then anti-HBc, the HBsAg ELISA test was conducted on them. The presence of HBV DNA in serum samples was evaluated using PCR assay. Results: 247 (123 males and 124 females) out of 342 patients were involved in solid tumors and the number of non-solid tumors was 95 (63 males and 32 females). Of the 342 samples examined, 103 serum samples (30.1%) were anti-HBc positive and 15.103 (14.6%) had HBsAg + / anti-HBc +. In this study, 3 of the 88 patients with anti-HBc +, HBV DNA + were identified Conclusion: Approximately out of every 25 patients with anti-HBc positive chemotherapy, one case of occult hepatitis B infection was detected.