5^th World Hematologists Congress

Biography

Biography: Zahra Mozaheb

Abstract

Human T-Cell Lymphotrophic Virus-1 (HTLV1), the first human retrovirus to be discovered, is estimated to infect 10-20 million people worldwide. Infection with HTLV1 is strongly related to adult T-cell leukemia/Lymphoma and HTLV1 associated myelopathy. HTLV1 is primarily transmitted by breast feeding, blood transfusion, sharing of needles and sexual transmission. It is endemic in southern Japan, the Caribbean and the Melanesian island, Papua New Guinea, the Middle East, central and southern Africa and South America. In these endemic areas, seroprevalence range is different from about one percent in Mashhad in southeast Iran (1-3%) to 30 percent in rural Miyazaki in southern Japan. Adult T-cell lymphoma leukemia (ATL) is an aggressive lymphoproliferative malignancy with short survival in acute form and an incidence of less than 5% in HTLV-1-infected people. The cumulative incidence of ATL among Japanese HTLV1 carrier is about 2.5% (3-5% in male and 1-2% in female). Although women are more infected with HTLV1 but ATL is more common in men, it shows that other factors also should be responsible. At first ATL was described in Japan and later in the Caribbean region and South America. In the United States and Europe, ATL was diagnosed in immigrants from regions of endemicity. ATL occurs at least 20 to 30 years after the onset of HTLV-1 infection and is more common in adult males. The occurrence of ATL in the fourth decade predominates in Brazil and in Jamaica, but in Japan, the fifth decade of life is predominant for the occurrence of ATL Possibly, local factors play a role in disease pathogenesis.