Abstract
Background: Little is known about stopping rules of nucelos(t)ide analog (NA) treatment for chronic hepatitis B (CHB). Methods: A total of 113 consecutive patients with CHB (45 HBeAg-positive and 68 HBeAg-negative CHB patients), who met the cessation criteria of NA treatment as per the Asian-Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL) guideline, were enrolled in this prospective cohort study. The primary endpoint was to evaluate virological relapse (VR) rate within 1 year, which was defined as reappearance of hepatitis B virus (HBV)–DNA > 2000 IU/mL after cessation of NA treatment. In this cohort, entecavir was used in 81 (71.7 %) and lamivudine in 32 (28.3 %) patients. Results: Within 1 year after NA treatment, VR occurred in 26 (57.8 %) HBeAg-positive patients and in 37 (54.4 %) HBeAg-negative patients. In univariate and subsequent multivariate analysis, age > 40 years [odds ratio (OR) 10.959; 95 % confidence interval (CI) 2.211–54.320; P = 0.003) and a pre-treatment HBV DNA level >2000,000 IU/mL (OR 9.285; 95 % CI 1.545–55.795; P = 0.036) were identified as independent risk factors for VR in HBeAg-positive patients, and age > 40 years (OR 6.690; 95 % CI 1.314–34.057; P = 0.022) and an end-of-treatment HBcrAg level >3.7 log IU/mL (OR 3.751; 95 % CI 1.187–11.856; P = 0.024) were identified in HBeAg-negative patients. During follow up, neither hepatic decompensation nor hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) occurred, and HBV DNA suppression was achieved in all patients who received antiviral re-treatment. Conclusion: Our data suggested that the APASL stopping rule could be applied if a candidate was properly selected using individual risk factors. However, regular monitoring should be performed after cessation of NA treatment and long-term outcomes need to be evaluated further.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 830-839 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Journal of Gastroenterology |
Volume | 51 |
Issue number | 8 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2016 Aug 1 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This study was supported by following Grants; (a) a fund of the HBV cohort study from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (4800-4845-300-260, 2015-ER5101-00), (b) a faculty research Grant of Yonsei University College of Medicine (No. 6-2012-0008).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015, Japanese Society of Gastroenterology.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Gastroenterology