Won-Mook Choi, Terry Cheuk-Fung Yip, W Ray Kim, Leland J Yee, Craig Brooks-Rooney, Tristan Curteis, Laura J Clark, Zarena Jafry, Chien-Hung Chen, Chi-Yi Chen, Yi-Hsiang Huang, Young-Joo Jin, Dae Won Jun, Jin-Wook Kim, Neung Hwa Park, Cheng-Yuan Peng, Hyun Phil Shin, Jung Woo Shin, Yao-Hsu Yang, Grace Lai-Hung Wong, Young-Suk Lim
BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE: A single-nation study reported that pre-treatment hepatitis B virus (HBV) viral load is associated with on-treatment risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-positive, non-cirrhotic, chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients initiating antiviral treatment. We aimed to validate the association between baseline HBV viral load and on-treatment HCC risk in a larger, multinational cohort. METHODS: Using a multinational cohort from Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan involving 7,545 HBeAg-positive, non-cirrhotic, adult CHB patients who started entecavir or tenofovir treatment with baseline HBV viral load ≥5...
January 24, 2024: Hepatology: Official Journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases