CDH1 and non-Hodgkin lymphoma: We also speculated that if C. burnetii infection could sometimes promote the development of NHL, the early steps towards NHL progression might be the decrease of E-cadherin (E-cad) surface expression on the CD20+ B-cells subpopulation of PBMCs (E-cad positive B-cells represents less than 1% of the circulating B lymphocytes) from C. burnetii-infected patients [30].