Hepatitis B virus infection specially increases risk of liver metastasis in breast cancer patients: a propensity-matched analysis
TRANSLATIONAL CANCER RESEARCH
Authors: Yu, Ping; Liu, Peng; Li, Na; Xie, Xinhua; Tang, Hailin; Wu, Jiali; Kong, Yanan; Xie, Xiaoming; Ye, Feng
Abstract
Background: Breast cancer and hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection are serious public health issues in China. But the effect of HBV infection on breast cancer remains unclear. The objective was to assess whether HBV infection was associated with prognosis of breast cancer. Methods: A retrospective database of 1,924 invasive breast cancer patients from Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center from 2008 to 2010 was established. Propensity score matching method was applied to balance baseline parameters. Logistic regression was used for identifying the independent risk factors of liver metastasis. Prognostic outcomes were evaluated via Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox model. Results: Primary evaluation of gross data suggested HBV infection was associated with much higher rate of liver metastasis. 642 patients were matched for analysis. The median follow-up time was about 69 months. Patients with HBV surface antigen (HBsAg) (+) had a specially higher risk of liver metastasis aside of other distant organs than those with HBsAg (-). HBsAg (-/+) was identified to be an independent risk factor of liver metastasis [odds ratio (OR), 2.651; 95% confidence intervals (CI), 1.213- 5.796; P=0.015]. HBsAg (+) was associated with liver metastasis significantly in stage III or in estrogen receptor (ER) (+) and/or progesterone receptor (PR) (+), human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER-2) (-) subtype. Meanwhile, patients with HBsAg (+) had significant shorter liver metastasis-free survival (LMFS) compared with HBsAg (-) patients (P=0.041). But the difference of overall survival (OS) between the HBsAg (-) and HBsAg (+) groups reached statistically no significance (P=0.425).The multivariate analysis suggested HBsAg (+) could worsen the outcome of LMFS [hazards ratio (HR), 2.450; 95% CI, 1.169-5.135; P=0.018]. Conclusions: In breast cancer, HBsAg (+) was associated with specially a higher rate of liver metastasis and thus worsened the LMFS. HBsAg (-/+) was an independent risk factor of liver metastasis.
Incidence and Factors Associated With HBV Relapse After Cessation of Entecavir or Tenofovir in Patients With HBsAg Below 100 IU/mL
CLINICAL GASTROENTEROLOGY AND HEPATOLOGY
Authors: Tseng, Tzu-Ning; Hu, Tsung-Hui; Wang, Jing-Houng; Kuo, Yuan-Hung; Hung, Chao-Hung; Lu, Sheng-Nan; Jeng, Wen-Juei; Chen, Chien-Hung
Abstract
BACKGROUND & AIMS: We investigated the incidence and factors associated with relapse of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in patients with levels of HB surface antigen (HBsAg) less than 100 IU/mL after cessation of entecavir or tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) treatment. METHODS: We collected data from patients with chronic HBV infection without cirrhosis treated with entecavir from 2007 through 2015 or TDF from 2011 through 2016 in Taiwan. We identified 135 patients with levels of HBsAg less than 100 IU/mL at the end of treatment (79 entecavir and 56 TDF) and collected data from them for a median of 87 weeks (interquartile range, 48-161 wk) for use as the development set. We collected data from 108 patients from separate medical centers in Taiwan, followed up for a median of 126 weeks (interquartile range, 61-214 wk), and used these as the validation group. Post-treatment virologic relapse was defined as a serum HBV DNA level greater than 2000 IU/mL, and clinical relapse was defined as an alanine aminotransferase level greater than 80 U/L and a HBV DNA level greater than 2000 IU/mL. RESULTS: In the development group, the 5-year incidences of virologic relapse, clinical relapse, and HBsAg loss were 40.9%, 32.5%, and 47%, respectively. The baseline HBV DNA and end-of-treatment levels of HBsAg were associated independently with relapse. In the development group, 17.3% of patients with end-of-treatment HBsAg levels less than 40 IU/mL had a virologic relapse within 5 years, whereas 67.6% of patients with a HBsAg level of 40 IU/mL or more had a virologic relapse within 5 years (P < .001); proportions of patients with clinical relapses were 10.2% (HBsAg <40 IU/mL) and 57.6% (HBsAg >= 40 IU/mL; P < .001). In the validation groups, for patients with end-of-treatment HBsAg levels less than 40 IU/mL or 40 IU/mL or more, the rates of virologic relapse at 5 years were 31.1% and 80.5% (P < .001), and rates of clinical relapse were 14.2% and 50.3% (P < .001), respectively. Rates of virologic and clinical relapse within 5 years were low (<10%) in patients with a combination of end-of-treatment HBsAg level less than 40 IU/mL and baseline HBV DNA level less than 5 3 104 IU/mL, or baseline hepatitis B core-related antigen level less than 4 log U/mL in the development group. CONCLUSIONS: An end-of-treatment HBsAg level of 40 IU/mL or less is optimal for stopping nucleos(t)ide analog therapy. Waiting to stop therapy until patients have a combination of baseline HBV DNA level of 5 3 104 IU/mL or hepatitis B core-related antigen of 4 log U/mL and end-of-treatment HBsAg level of 40 IU/mL might reduce the risk of HBV relapse.