Antiviral therapy reduces HCC and cirrhosis risk in Chinese chronic hepatitis B patients with mildly elevated ALT - PubMed
2 days ago
- #hepatitis B
- #antiviral therapy
- #liver disease
- Antiviral therapy with nucleos(t)ide analogues (NA) reduces the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cirrhosis in Chinese chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients with mildly elevated ALT levels (1-2×ULN).
- The study included 3,734 non-cirrhotic CHB patients with ALT <2×ULN, with 37.8% receiving NA treatment.
- After inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW), treated patients had significantly lower 5-year cumulative incidence of HCC (0.9% vs. 4.4%) and cirrhosis (4.0% vs. 8.9%) compared to untreated patients.
- Multivariate Cox analyses showed NA therapy was associated with a lower risk of HCC (aHR: 0.14) and cirrhosis (aHR: 0.30).
- The benefits were consistent in patients with ALT 1-2×ULN but not in those with ALT ≤1×ULN.
- The findings support expanding antiviral treatment criteria for early treatment of non-cirrhotic CHB patients with mildly elevated ALT.