Short- and long-term outcome of interferon therapy for chronic hepatitis B infection

Table 3 Summary of the long-term follow-up studies of interferon α treatment on the development of hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma

Ref.	Study type	Number of patients (treated/controls)	Region of origin	HBeAg-positive (%)	Cirrhosis (%)	Treatment follow-up (yr)	HCC development (% treated vs % controls)	Significance(P value)
Lin et al[19]	Prospective, randomized, controlled	101 (67/34)	Taiwan	100	12.5	7.4	1.5 vs 11.8	0.043
Lin et al[42]	Retrospective, matched controls	466 (233/233)	Taiwan	100	9.4	6.8	2.7 vs 12.5	0.011
Ikeda et al[49]	Retrospective, unmatched controls	313 (94/219)	Japan	36	100	6.9	17.0 vs 30.8	0.012
Krogsgaard et al[43]	Retrospective, multicenter controlled trials	308 (210/98)	Europe	100	6.1	4.7	0.96 vs 1.0	NS
International IFN-α HCC Study Group[50]	Retrospective, multicenter, matched controls	146 (49/97)	Italy, Argentina	NA	91	6.5	16 vs 19	NS
Mazzella et al[51]	Prospective, randomized, controlled	64 (33/ 31)	Italy	0	0	6.9	3.0 vs 6.4	NS
Tangkijvanich et al[44]	Retrospective, unmatched controls	139 (69/72)	Thailand	100	20.1	5.0	4.7 vs 12.5	NS
Papatheodoridis et al[45]	Retrospective, unmatched controls	404 (209/195)	Greece	100	30.9	6.0	8.1 vs 7.7	NS
Truong et al[46]	Retrospective, matched controls	62 (27/35)	Japan	59.6	1.6	6.5	3.7 vs 0.0	NS
Yuen et al[47]	Prospective, matched controls	411 (208/203)	Hong Kong	100	NA	8.9	2.4 vs 0.0	NS
			Number of analyzed studies	RD/RR			95%CI	Significance (P value)
Cammà et al[52]	Meta-analysis	853/652	7 Studies	RD = -6.4% (overall)			-2.8%-(-10%)	< 0.001
				RD = -4.8% (European)			-11.1%-1.5%	NS
Miyake et al[53]	Meta-analysis	553/750	8 Studies	RD = -5.0% (overall)			-9.4%-(-0.5%)	0.028
				RD = -8.5% (Asian)			-13.6-(-3.6%)	0.001
Sung et al[54]	Meta-analysis	1292/1458	12 Studies	RR = 0.66			0.48-0.89	0.006
Yang et al[55]	Meta-analysis	1006/1076	11 Studies	RR = 0.59			0.43-0.81	0.001
Zhang et al[56]	Meta-analysis	176/171	2 Studies	RR = 0.23			0.05-1.04	NS
Jin et al[57]	Meta-analysis	1291/1048	9 Studies	RR = 0.274			0.059-1.031	NS

IFN: Interferon; HBeAg: Hepatitis e antigen; HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; NS: Not significant; NA: Not available; RD: Risk difference; RR: Relative risk.