Oral Medications Enhance Adherence to Surveillance for Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Survival in Chronic Hepatitis B Patients.

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMSRegular surveillance for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients is essential to detect HCC earlier and to improve prognosis. This study investigated whether prescription of oral medication contributes to adherence to surveillance, early tumor detection, and overall survival (OS).METHODSA total of 401 CHB patients who were newly diagnosed with HCC were included: 134 patients received no medication (group 1), 151 received hepatoprotective agents such as ursodeoxycholic acid and silymarin (group 2), and 116 received antiviral agents (group 3) at two years before HCC diagnosis. The primary endpoint was OS, and secondary endpoints were compliance to regular surveillance and HCC status at diagnosis.RESULTSCompared to group 1, both group 2 and 3 had higher rates of good compliance to regular surveillance (defined as participation in >80% of imaging intervals being ≤6 months) (58.2%, 90.1%, and 97.4%, respectively; P100% in group 2 and 14.5% in group 3) rather than direct effect of medication itself.CONCLUSIONSPrescription of oral medication improves compliance to surveillance and enables early detection of HCC, which is associated with enhanced survival.