Cancer Management and Research (Sep 2019)

Impact of antiviral therapy with nucleos(t)ide analog on survival of patients with HBV-related small hepatocellular carcinomas

  • Wei Y,
  • Yi Y,
  • Tao C,
  • Ye W,
  • Zhao W

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 11
pp. 8475 – 8486

Abstract

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Yanyan Wei,1,2,* Yongxiang Yi,3,* Chen Tao,1,3 Wei Ye,1,3 Wei Zhao1,3 1Department of Infectious Diseases, The Second Hospital of Nanjing, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Hepatobiliary Surgeon, The Second Hospital of Nanjing, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Wei Ye; Wei ZhaoDepartment of Infectious Diseases, The Second Hospital of Nanjing, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, No. 1-1 Zhongfu Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail [email protected]; [email protected]: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second leading causes of cancer-related death. HCC is usually based on chronic liver disease, mainly including chronic hepatitis C virus infection or chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection.Objective: The objective of the study was to evaluate the impact of the nucleos(t)ide analog (NA) use on the prognosis of patients with HBV-related small hepatocellular carcinomas (HBV-SHCC).Methods: In this retrospective study, there were 134 patients who had been treated with long-term NA before SHCC diagnosis as NA-experienced group, 43 patients received NA-naïve treatment after SHCC diagnosis as NA-naïve group, and 15 patients who did not receive NA treatment as untreated group. Among these patients, some patients underwent surgical resection and others with local recurrence were treated with transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), TACE-percutaneous microwave coagulation therapy or TACE alone. The Kaplan–Meier and Cox-proportional hazard model were used to calculate the survival analysis.Results: The data showed that 1-year, 3-year, 5-year overall survival rate of HBV-SHCC patients in NA-experienced group were 90.27%, 90.69%, 65%, NA-naïve group were 70.81%, 73.95%, 47.39%, and untreated group were 54.96%, 40.44%, 47.39%, respectively (Log-rank, P=0.031). The median survival time of HBV-SHCC patients treated with adefovir dipivoxil (ADV) or LAM+ADV has the longest survival time. Patients who have received rescue treatment after viral breakthrough or gotten maintained viral response had longer survival times than those who have not received rescue treatment after viral breakthrough or non-response. Compared with timely rescue treatment, viral breakthrough (hazard ratio=3.624, 95% CI, 1.035–12.687, P=0.044) was an independent risk factor for HBV-SHCC patients with Cox-proportional hazard model. For these patients conforming to NA-treatment indications, commencement of NA treatment should be given even after HBV-SHCC diagnosis. Moreover, HBV-SHCC patients who were suffering from virus break through should be treated timely rescue therapy even if their liver function was normal.Conclusion: SHCC patients treated with low drug resistance barrier drugs may not change the treatment regimen if they have gotten virological response.Keywords: chronic hepatitis B, hepatocellular carcinoma, liver cirrhosis, nucleos(t)ide analog, virus breakthrough, timely rescue therapy

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