Long-term Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis Bwith Lamivudin or in Combination with Interferon

Overview

Patients with chronic hepatitis B and active virus replication may be presently treated withinterferon, lamivudin or a combination of both drugs. The authors treated 14 such patients forlong periods of time: 10 of them displayed positive HBeAg in serum and four had positiveanti-HBe and HBV DNA. Seven patients were treated with lamivudin alone and seven bya combination of lamivudin and interferon. After the end the combined therapy the patientsreceived a monotherapy by lamivudin for further 15 months on the average. Better results wereobtained with the therapy of lamivudin alone: HBeAg seroconversion occurred in three out offour HBeAg positive patients (75%), but only in two out of six patients treated by thecombination (33%). In the therapy by lamivudin alone only one patient did not respond totherapy against four in the combined therapy. Moreover, a relapse occurred in three patientsafter the therapy ceased. In contrast, one patient treated with lamivudin alone eliminated evenHBsAg from the serum. It appears that a long-term treatment with lamivudin alone is not onlyless expensive, but it is also more effective than a combined therapy with interferon; the results,however, were reached in a small number of patients.

Key words:
chronic hepatitis B - lamivudin - interferon.