[Long-term efficacy and safety of telbivudine as monotherapy and as combination therapy with adefovir dipivoxil in HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B patients].
OBJECTIVE
To prospectively observe the long-term antiviral efficacy and safety of telbivudine (LDT) administered as a monotherapy and as a combination therapy with adefovir dipivoxil (ADV) in patients diagnosed with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and positivity for hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg).


METHODS
A total of 140 patients with HBeAg-positive CHB were randomly divided into treatment groups for LDT monotherapy (n = 75; 600 mg orally, once daily) and LDT+ADV combination therapy (n = 65; LDT 600 mg plus ADV 10 mg orally, once daily). The shortest treatment course was 96 weeks and the longest was 240 weeks. At treatment weeks 12, 24, 48?, 96, 144, 192, and 240 patients were tested for hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA, HBeAg seroconversion and ALT normalization time; in addition, the incidence and type of adverse drug reactions were recorded. Data were statistically analyzed to determine the significance of differences observed between groups.


RESULTS
The rate of patients experiencing more than or equal to 2 log HBV DNA reduction was higher in the LDT + ADV group (92.3%(60/65) vs. LDT: 86.7%(65/75), X2 = 1.58). The HBV DNA negative rates of the LDT and LDT + ADV groups were 62.7% and 61.5% (X2 = 0.01) at week 24, 76.0% and 81.5% (X2 = 0.63) at week 48, 80.0% and 89.2% (X2 = 2.2) at week 96, 78.3% and 93.3% (X2 = 3.24) at week 144, 83.7% and 91.7% (X2 = 0.47) at week 192, and 93.3% and 88.9% at week 240 (comparison between two groups for each point P more than 0.05); both groups showed higher early and rapid sustained HBV DNA negative rates. For the HBeAg seroconversion, the rates of the LDT and LDT + ADV groups were 17.3% and 23.1% (X2 = 0.71) at week 24, 29.3% and 30.8% (X2 = 0.03) at week 48, 42.7% and 40.0% (X2 = 0.10) at week 96, 55.0% and 43.3% (X2 = 1.08) at week 144, 55.8% and 66.7% (X2 = 0.45) at week 192, and 63.3% and 66.7% at week 240; however, pairwise comparison showed no statistically significant differences between the groups (P more than 0.05). Similarly, there was no significant difference between the two groups in incidence of resistance at week 48 (4.0% and 1.5%), week 96 (5.3% and 3.1%), week 144 (10.0% and 3.3%, X2 = 1.23), week 192 (11.6% and 8.3%), and week 240 (13.3% and 11.1%) (all P more than 0.05). Three patients experienced muscle soreness (LDT, n = 2; LDT + ADV, n = 1) and two patients experienced increased creatine phosphokinase (LDT, n = 1; LDT + ADV, n = 1); all side effects resolved spontaneously or with symptom-appropriate treatment.


CONCLUSIONS
The long-term efficacy of LDT as a monotherapy or as a combination therapy with ADV was similar and the two different treatment approaches were associated with similar rates of resistance. The long-term safety was good for both treatment approaches.
Department of Hepatitis Diseases, The Third People's Hospital of Kunming City, Yunnan Province, Kunming 650041, China.
Yunhua
Y
Liu
Li
L
Liu
Dan
D
Peng
Weikun
W
Li
Yingrong
Y
Du
Ting
T
Jia
Lixian
L
Chang
Huimin
H
Li
D000225:Adenine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D005260:Female; D006513:Hepatitis B e Antigens / Q000097:blood; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D063065:Organophosphonates / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D000077712:Telbivudine; D013936:Thymidine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D055815:Young Adult
D000998:Antiviral Agents; D006513:Hepatitis B e Antigens; D063065:Organophosphonates; D000077712:Telbivudine; D000225:Adenine; C106812:adefovir dipivoxil; D013936:Thymidine