Short-and long-term outcome of interferon therapy for chronic hepatitis B infection

作     者：Yasushi Seo Yoshihiko Yano 

作者机构：Division of GastroenterologyDepartment of Internal MedicineKobe University Graduate School of Medicine Internal Medicine and Ophthalmology Clinic 

出 版 物：《World Journal of Gastroenterology》 (世界胃肠病学杂志（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2014年第20卷第37期

页      面：13284-13292页

核心收录：

学科分类：1004[医学-公共卫生与预防医学(可授医学、理学学位)] 100401[医学-流行病与卫生统计学] 10[医学] 

主　　题：Chronic hepatitis B Hepatitis B virus Interferon α Long-term outcome Hepatocellular carcinoma 

摘      要：Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a serious clinical problem worldwide. Conventional interferon (IFN)-α has been approved for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B (CHB). Short-term studies have demonstrated that IFN-based therapy is moderately effective in inducing the loss of hepatitis e antigen (HBeAg) or seroconversion (30%-40%) in HBeAg-positive patients and also produces sustained HBV DNA suppression (20%-30%) in HBeAg-negative patients. Many studies have reported a correlation between the HBV genotype and response to IFN treatment. The highest response rate to IFN treatment was found in patients infected with HBV genotype A, followed by HBV genotypes B, C, and D. The long-term effect of IFN-α on CHB has not yet been elucidated. The ability of IFN-α treatment to prevent new cirrhosis, complications associated with cirrhosis, and development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is controversial. The beneficial effect of IFN-α treatment in reducing the development of HCC has mainly been observed in treatment responders who already have cirrhosis. These inconsistent findings may be attributed to the inevitable limitations of comparisons across studies, including differences in the baseline characteristics of the study and the moderate suppression of HBV replication by IFN-α relative to nucleoside/nucleos(t)ide analogs.