Extended peginterferon alfa-2a (Pegasys) therapy in Chinese patients with HBeAg-negative chronic hepatitis B

Abstract

The present study compared the efficacy of standard and extended durations of PEG-IFNα-2a monotherapy for treatment of HBeAg-negative Chinese patients with chronic hepatitis B. Patients were randomized to receive standard therapy (n = 38; 48 weeks treatment) or extended therapy (n = 42; 72 weeks treatment). Extended therapy resulted in a significantly higher HBV DNA inhibition at 24 and 48 weeks after the end of treatment, a significantly higher sustained HBV DNA inhibition at the end of treatment, and a significantly lower HBsAg level at 24 and 48 weeks after the end of treatment (P < 0.05 for all comparisons). The HBsAg clearance rate was significantly greater in the extended therapy group than in the standard therapy group at 24 and 48 weeks post-treatment (33.3% vs. 10.5% and 35.7% vs. 10.5%, respectively; P < 0.05 for both). In addition, patients with an increase of more than 1 log10 IU/ml in HBsAg level from baseline to week 24 had a significantly lower level of HBsAg at end of treatment (0.54 ± 1.76 vs. 2.89 ± 1.27, P < 0.001), but a higher level of HBsAg clearance (64.3% vs. 7.6%, P < 0.001). Assessment of HBsAg level at week 24 appears to be a suitable checkpoint. These results indicate that 72 weeks of PEG-IFNα-2a monotherapy benefits HBeAg-negative Chinese patients with chronic hepatitis B who are infected with HBV genotype B or C.

Hepatitis B virus genotypes: epidemiological and clinical relevance in Asia

“…Later, a prospective study [55] including 80 treatmentnaive HBeAg-negative patients in Guangdong province showed that compared with the standard course (48 weeks), the extended course (72 weeks) improved HBsAg clearance and seroconversion in patients with genotype B and increased the number of patients achieving a viral load below 2000 IU/ml in patients with genotype C.…”

Extended duration versus standard duration of peginterferon alfa-2a in treatment of chronic hepatitis B: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Four controlled clinical trial studies matched the selection criteria [17][18][19][20]. The detailed process of the literature search is depicted in Fig.…”

“…Table 1 summarizes the details of included studies. One study was performed in 22 centres in Italy [19] and the remaining three were conducted in single center in China [17,18,20]. All studies were published as full publications, with two in English [19,20] and two in Chinese [17,18].…”

“…One study was performed in 22 centres in Italy [19] and the remaining three were conducted in single center in China [17,18,20]. All studies were published as full publications, with two in English [19,20] and two in Chinese [17,18]. Two studies were randomized controlled trials [19,20] and two were cohort studies [17,18].…”

“…All studies were published as full publications, with two in English [19,20] and two in Chinese [17,18]. Two studies were randomized controlled trials [19,20] and two were cohort studies [17,18]. The sample size varied from 80 [20] to 103 [19].…”