The assessment of hepatocellular carcinoma risk in patients with chronic hepatitis B under antiviral therapy

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a primary concern for patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB). Antiviral therapy has been reasonably the focus of interest for HCC prevention, with most studies reporting on the role of the chronologically preceding agents, interferon-alfa and lamivudine. The impact of interferon-alfa on the incidence of HCC is clearer in Asian patients and those with compensated cirrhosis, as several meta-analyses have consistently shown HCC risk reduction, compared to untreated patients. Nucleos(t)ide analogues also seem to have a favorable impact on the HCC incidence when data from randomized or matched controlled studies are considered. Given that the high-genetic barrier agents, entecavir and tenofovir, are mainly used in CHB because of their favorable effects on the overall long-term outcome of such patients, the most clinically important challenge is the identification of patients who require close HCC surveillance despite on-therapy virological remission. Several risk scores have been developed for HCC prediction in CHB patients. Most of them, such as GAG-HCC, CU-HCC and REACH-B, have been developed and validated in Asian untreated and treated CHB patients, but they do not seem to offer good predictability in Caucasian CHB patients for whom a newer score, PAGE-B, has been recently developed.

Keywords: Antivirals; Hepatitis B; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Interferon-alfa.

Figure 1.

Incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in chronic hepatitis B patients treated with nucleos(t)ide analogues. Data from studies with treated patients and untreated controls included in a systematic review15. VR, virological remission; NVR, No virological response; VBTH:, virological breakthrough.