Commentary
See article on page 562Combination therapy of hepatitis B
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
There are now two licensed therapies for chronic hepatitis B:
interferon 
and lamivudine. Interferon was first shown to have
activity against hepatitis B in 1976,1 but was not
formally approved for use in chronic hepatitis B until 1992. The
currently recommended regimen for interferon is 5 million units (mu)
given daily or 10 mu given three times a week by subcutaneous (sc)
injection for four to six months. This regimen results in long term
beneficial responses in roughly 33% of
patients.2 3
Lamivudine was first shown to have activity against hepatitis B virus (HBV) in 19924 and was approved for use in chronic hepatitis B in 1998. The currently recommended regimen for lamivudine is 100 mg given daily by mouth for one year. This regimen results in beneficial responses in 16-20% of patients with typical chronic hepatitis B.5-7
Thus, there are now two choices for therapy. Which should be used?
Which should be used first?
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Relevant Article
- Lamivudine and alpha interferon combination treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis B infection: a randomised trial
- S W Schalm, J Heathcote, J Cianciara, G Farrell, M Sherman, B Willems, A Dhillon, A Moorat, J Barber, D F Gray, and International Lamivudine Study Group
Gut 2000 46: 562-568.[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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