Author information
1 Department of Internal Medicine and Liver Research Institute, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
2 Department of Internal Medicine, Sanggye Paik Hospital, Inje University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: mseileen80@gmail.com.
3 Department of Internal Medicine, Hanyang University Hospital, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: noshin@hanyang.ac.kr.
4 Department of Internal Medicine, Nowon Eulji Medical Center, Eulji University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
5 Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, National Medical Center, Seoul, Korea.
6 Department of Internal Medicine, Kangdong Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
7 Department of Internal Medicine, Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University Seoul Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
8 Department of Internal Medicine, Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, Anyang-si, Republic of Korea.
9 Department of Internal Medicine, Kyung Hee University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
10 Department of Internal Medicine, Hanyang University Guri Hospital, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Guri-si, Republic of Korea.
11 Department of Internal Medicine, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Abstract
BACKGROUND & AIMS: Studies to evaluate risks of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection treated with the nucelos(t)ide analogues entecavir or tenofovir have produced contradictory results. These differences are likely to be due to censored data, insufficient observation periods, and different observation periods for patients treated with different drugs. We aimed to compare the incidence of HCC development between patients treated with oral entecavir or tenofovir and followed for the same time periods.
METHODS: We performed a retrospective study, collecting data from 1560 treatment-naïve patients with chronic HBV infection who were first treated with entecavir (n=753) or tenofovir (n=807) from 2011 through 2015 at 9 academic hospitals in Korea. Clinical outcomes were recorded over a mean time period of 4.7±1.0 y, from 92.4% of patients treated with tenofovir and 92.7% of patients treated with entecavir.
RESULTS: Thirty-four patients in the entecavir group (4.5%) and 45 patients in the tenofovir group (5.6%) developed HCC during the follow-up period. The incidence of HCC did not differ significantly between groups, even in a 516-pair propensity score-matched population.
CONCLUSIONS: In a retrospective study of1560 treatment-naïve patients with chronic HBV infection, the incidence of HCC did not differ significantly between patients treated with entecavir vs tenofovir over the same observation period. Clinical trial No. KCT0003487.