Hepatitis B virus relapse rates in chronic hepatitis B patients who discontinue either entecavir or tenofovir.

BACKGROUND: Entecavir (ETV) and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) are first-line long-term monotherapy for treatment of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection. High virological relapse rates are found after cessation of either ETV or TDF in CHB patients.

AIM: To compare hepatitis B virus (HBV) relapse rates in CHB patients without cirrhosis who discontinued ETV or TDF.

METHODS: A retrospective-prospective study was conducted in 342 CHB patients (108 hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-positive and 234 HBeAg-negative) who received ETV and 165 (46 HBeAg-positive, 119 HBeAg-negative) who received TDF were recruited. All patients had post-treatment follow-up for at least 6 months. All fulfilled the stopping criteria of the Asia-Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver of 2012.

RESULTS: Patients who discontinued TDF had significantly higher rates and earlier times of virological and clinical relapse than those who discontinued ETV. This was also seen in propensity score (PS)-matched HBeAg-positive and HBeAg-negative patients. Multivariate analysis showed that being in the TDF group was an independent factor for virological and clinical relapse in all patients and PS-matched HBeAg-positive and HBeAg-negative patients. The rate of off-therapy HBsAg loss was comparable between the ETV and TDF groups after 2-3 years follow-up. Clinical relapse tended to be more severe in the TDF group compared with the ETV group.

CONCLUSION: HBV relapse occurs sooner and is more severe after cessation of TDF than after cessation of ETV.