Abstract

Introduction. Based on very limited data, it has been recently suggested that hepatitis B virus infection can play significant roles in post transplantation lymphoproliferative disorders. In the current study pooling data of PTLD in HBV positive liver recipients gathered from the existing literature, we sought to analyze and compare characteristics, behavior and prognosis of PTLD arising in HBV positive liver graft recipients. Methods. A comprehensive search for the available data though PubMed and Google Scholar for reports of PTLD and HBV infection in liver recipients was conducted. Data of 18 different studies were pooled and analyzed. Results. Liver recipients with HBV positive-PTLD were comparable to their HBV negative counterparts in gender, age at transplantation, time from transplantation to PTLD development, lymphoma cell type, histopathology of lesions, remission episodes, mortality rate, multi-organ involvement, and disseminated PTLD (p > 0.1 for all). HBV positive PTLD patients were significantly less likely to complicate spleen (0 vs. 23, respectively; p = 0.015). Survival of the two patient groups were comparable (p = 0.8). Conclusion. HBV infection has no significant impact on inducing some distinct types of PTLD and represents no survival effect in PTLD setting. Future prospective studies are needed for confirming our findings.