Lamivudine and alpha-interferon in combination long term for precore mutant chronic hepatitis B

Background/Aims: Alpha-interferon (α-IFN) and lamivudine are the two licensed drugs for patients with chronic hepatitis B, however, their efficacy in precore mutant chronic hepatitis B is limited. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of 1 year α-IFN–lamivudine combination therapy for anti-HBe/hepatitis B virus- (HBV)-DNA positive patients. Methods: Between 1997 and 1999, 29 consecutive anti-HBe/HBV-DNA positive patients entered this prospective pilot study. Patients received 100 mg lamivudine orally daily and α-IFN 6 million units (MU) three times weekly for 52 weeks. All patients were followed-up for 12 months after stopping therapy. Primary end points were loss of serum HBV-DNA and alanine transaminase normalization at week 52. Results: Overall, the end-treatment biochemical and virological response was 93% while the sustained response at week 104 was 14%. HBV-DNA negative patients did not experience a viral breakthrough during treatment; no tyrosine–methionine–aspartate–aspartate amino acid motif of HBV polymerase (YMDD) variant emerged. At week 52, 46% of patients with paired liver biopsies slides available, showed an histological improvement (histological activity index ≥2). Conclusions: Combination of lamivudine and interferon for 1 year is followed by high end-treatment virological and biochemical response rates, by improvement of liver histology and by the prevention of the emergence of YMDD mutation; however, the sustained response rate remains low.