Antiviral therapy should be used in patients with HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma after curative resection

Tumor recurrence is a major issue for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) following curative liver resection. In the present study, we found antiviral agents can reduce one-third HBV-related HCC tumor recurrence after curative liver resection for hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related HCC patients,. Based on 100,983 HCC patients in the Taiwan's nationwide database, we identified 518 HBV-related HCC patients receiving nucleoside analogues and 4051 untreated HBV-related HCC patients.  After adjusting competing mortality, we found the treated group had significantly reduced 6-year HCC recurrence rate and overall mortality rate. We recommend antiviral therapy should be used in HBV-related HCC patients after curative resection.

Bibliographic Reference:

Wu CY et al.: "Association between nucleoside analogues and risk of hepatitis B virus–related hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence following liver resection", JAMA. 2012 Nov 14;308(18):1906-14

Chun-Ying Wu

School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan