Impact of antiviral therapy with nucleos(t)ide analog on survival of patients with HBV-related small hepatocellular carcinomas

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second leading causes of cancer-related death. HCC is usually based on chronic liver disease, mainly including chronic hepatitis C virus infection or chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Objective: The objective of the study was to evaluate the impact of the nucleos(t)ide analog (NA) use on the prognosis of patients with HBV-related small hepatocellular carcinomas (HBV-SHCC). Methods: In this retrospective study, there were 134 patients who had been treated with long-term NA before SHCC diagnosis as NA-experienced group, 43 patients received NA-naive treatment after SHCC diagnosis as NA-naive group, and 15 patients who did not receive NA treatment as untreated group. Among these patients, some patients underwent surgical resection and others with local recurrence were treated with transarterial chemoem-bolization (TACE), TACE-percutaneous microwave coagulation therapy or TACE alone. The Kaplan-Meier and Cox-proportional hazard model were used to calculate the survival analysis. Results: The data showed that 1-year, 3-year, 5-year overall survival rate of HBV-SHCC patients in NA-experienced group were 90.27%, 90.69%, 65%, NA-naive group were 70.81%, 73.95%, 47.39%, and untreated group were 54.96%, 40.44%, 47.39%, respectively (Log-rank, P=0.031). The median survival time of HBV-SHCC patients treated with adefovir dipivoxil (ADV) or LAM+ADV has the longest survival time. Patients who have received rescue treatment after viral breakthrough or gotten maintained viral response had longer survival times than those who have not received rescue treatment after viral breakthrough or non-response. Compared with timely rescue treatment, viral breakthrough (hazard ratio=3.624, 95% CI, 1.035-12.687, P=0.044) was an independent risk factor for HBV-SHCC patients with Cox-proportional hazard model. For these patients conforming to NA-treatment indications, commencement of NA treatment should be given even after HBV-SHCC diagnosis. Moreover, HBV-SHCC patients who were suffering from virus break through should be treated timely rescue therapy even if their liver function was normal. Conclusion: SHCC patients treated with low drug resistance barrier drugs may not change the treatment regimen if they have gotten virological response.