Effect of adjuvant interferon therapy on hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma: a systematic review.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of adjuvant interferon therapy for hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after different previous therapy.


METHODS
An electronic search for articles about adjuvant treatment with IFN for patients with HCC published between 2000 and 2015 was conducted in MEDLINE, PubMed, Cochrane Library, and EMBASE databases. All data was tested with Stata12.0 software.


RESULTS
Six trials with a total of 1054 subjects were screened according to inclusion and exclusion standards. Five hundred and seventeen HCC patients were treated with adjuvant treatment with IFN and 537 patients with placebo. Compared to the control group, both the recurrence rate and death rate of HCC in IFN group were statistically lower, especially after transhepatic arterial chemotherapy and embolization (TACE) treatment and both TACE and resection according to subgroup analysis. There is no statistical significance on the both recurrence and death rate of HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma after surgical resection treatment (RR = 0.96, 95 % CI, 0.84 to 1.1, p = 0.59 for recurrence and RR = 0.78, 95 % CI, 0.60 to 1.04, p = 0.09 for death rates).


CONCLUSIONS
Adjuvant IFN therapy may significantly reduced mortality as well as recurrence rate of patients with HBV-related HCC after no matter what the previous treatment. On the other hand, there is no statistical significance on the recurrence rate and mortality after surgical resection only. More research is needed into the relationship between effect of adjuvant interferon therapy and previous therapy, especially TACE.
Department of Gastroenterology, No. 202 Hospital of Chinese People's Liberation Army, No. 5, Guangrong Street, HePing District, Shenyang, Liaoning, 110003, China.
Shu
S
Yang
Department of Pharmacy, Integrated Traditional and Western Medicine Hospital of Taizhou, Taizhou, China.
Qi
Q
Lin
Department of Pediatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China.
Wei
W
Lin
Institute of Translational Medicine, Zhejiang University, Zhejiang, China.
Weilei
W
Hu
Institute of Translational Medicine, Zhejiang University, Zhejiang, China. 529195109@163.com.
Guosheng
G
Wang
D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000150:complications* / Q000821:virology; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000472:pathogenicity; D006801:Humans; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology
D000998:Antiviral Agents; D016898:Interferon-alpha