A Turkish clinical practice study shows that entecavir and tenofovir
disoproxil fumarate (TDF) can effectively maintain long-term virological
and biochemical responses in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus
(HBV) infection, both in those with and without cirrhosis.
Hepatocellular
carcinoma (HCC) did develop in a proportion of patients, but the rate
was lower than that reported in previous studies, say the researchers,
adding that owing to the lack of a control group, they “cannot prove”
that HCC prevention was a consequence of antiviral therapy.
Virological
response, defined as a serum HBV DNA level below 20 IU/mL, and
normalisation of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels were achieved by a
similar proportion of the 183 entecavir- and the 172 TDF-treated
patients who were followed up for a minimum of 6 months. And the
presence of cirrhosis did not adversely affect viral suppression.
Read more...Labels: entecavir, long-term suppression, tenofovir