Long-term lamivudine for chronic hepatitis B and cirrhosis: A real-life cohort study

AIM:To investigate clinical outcomes of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and liver cirrhosis (LC) patients under whole-course management with lamivudine (LAM). METHODS:This was a retrospective-prospective cohort study based on two nonrandom cohorts of Chinese patients (LAM group and history control group).Two hundred thirty-eight patients with LAM treatment for at least 12 mo under whole-course management were included in the LAM group.The management measures included regular follow-up and timely adjustment of the therapeutic regimen according to drug-resistance and relapse.Two hundred thirtyeight patients with CHB or LC without any antiviral treatment and with follow-up over 12 mo were included in the history control group.The LAM and control group patients were 1:1 matched by propensity score method to ensure both patients were similar in general datum, sex, age, E antigen, and diagnosis.The incidence rates of endpoint events [LC, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and death] were compared between the LAM and control groups.RESULTS: Hepatitis B virus-DNA < 1000 copies per mL rate and rate of alanine transaminase < 1.3 of the