title: Efficacy of interferon-beta plus ribavirin combination treatment on the development of hepatocellular carcinoma in Japanese patients with chronic hepatitis C.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Although there is much evidence of an antitumor effect of pegylated interferon (IFN)-α-based treatment, limited data is available about that of IFN-β-based treatment. Our goal was to evaluate the impact of IFN-β plus ribavirin (RBV) treatment on the suppression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
  
  
  METHODS
  This retrospective, multicenter study consisted of 124 chronic hepatitis C patients who were treated with IFN-β plus RBV treatment, including 61 with advanced fibrosis and five with pretreatment HCC. All participants were followed for a median of 2.8 years (range, 2.2-3.2) after the end of their antiviral treatment. The data of 112 patients who finished the treatment were available for analysis. Cox proportional hazard analyses were performed to determine factors significantly associated with HCC development. Cumulative incidence curves for HCC were plotted using the Kaplan-Meier method and differences between groups were assessed using the log-rank test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The 2.9% rate of HCC development of patients with sustained virological response (SVR) was significantly lower (P = 0.027) than the 15.9% of non-SVR patients. Interestingly, no significant difference was observed between the rates of HCC development of patients with and without advanced fibrosis (P = 0.733), even though the SVR rate of patients with advanced fibrosis was significantly lower than that of those without advanced fibrosis (P < 0.001). Stepwise multivariable Cox analysis extracted that only SVR was significantly associated with HCC development (hazard ratio, 0.20; 95% confidence interval, 0.03-0.84, P = 0.027).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  SVR was significantly associated with a lower risk of HCC development after IFN-β plus RBV treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Internal Medicine, Kyushu University Hospital.|Department of Environmental Medicine and Infectious Disease, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kyushu University, Fukuoka City, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ikezaki
authors.affiliation: The Center for Liver Disease, Shin-Kokura Hospital, Kitakyushu City, Japan.
authors.forename: Hideyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nomura
authors.affiliation: Department of General Internal Medicine, Kyushu University Hospital.|Department of Environmental Medicine and Infectious Disease, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kyushu University, Fukuoka City, Japan.
authors.forename: Norihiro
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Furusyo
authors.affiliation: Department of General Internal Medicine, Kyushu University Hospital.|Department of Environmental Medicine and Infectious Disease, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kyushu University, Fukuoka City, Japan.
authors.forename: Eiichi
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ogawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Steel Memorial Yawata Hospital, Kitakyushu City, Japan.
authors.forename: Eiji
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kajiwara
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Hamanomachi Hospital, Fukuoka City, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Kitakyushu Municipal Medical Center, Kitakyushu City, Japan.
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kawano
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Kitakyushu Municipal Medical Center, Kitakyushu City, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshihiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Maruyama
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Fukuoka City Hospital, Fukuoka City, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tanabe
authors.affiliation: Center for Liver Disease, National Hospital Organization Kokura Medical Center, Kitakyushu City, Japan.
authors.forename: Takeaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Satoh
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Kyushu Medical Center, National Hospital Organization, Fukuoka City, Japan.
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakamuta
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Bioregulatory Science, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka City, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kotoh
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Kyushu Central Hospital, Fukuoka City, Japan.
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Azuma
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Chihaya Hospital, Fukuoka City, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazufumi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dohmen
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Biosystemic Science, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka City, Japan.
authors.forename: Shinji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shimoda
authors.affiliation: Kyushu General Internal Medicine Center, Hara-Doi Hospital, Fukuoka City, Japan.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hayashi
keywords: advanced fibrosis; antitumor; beta-interferon; hepatocellular carcinoma