A Case of Chronic Hepatitis B in which HBs Antigen Seroclearance was Induced by Pegpegylated-interferonα-2a after Hepatocellular Carcinoma Treatment with Nucleos(t)ide Analogues: A Five-year Follow-up

Shima Mimura; Masafumi Ono; Koji Fujita; Kei Takuma; Mai Nakahara; Kyoko Oura; Tomoko Tadokoro; Joji Tani; Asahiro Morishita; Seiko Kagawa; Keiichi Okano; Takashi Himoto; Tsutomu Masaki

doi:10.2169/internalmedicine.3643-24

A Case of Chronic Hepatitis B in which HBs Antigen Seroclearance was Induced by Pegpegylated-interferonα-2a after Hepatocellular Carcinoma Treatment with Nucleos(t)ide Analogues: A Five-year Follow-up

Intern Med. 2024 May 30. doi: 10.2169/internalmedicine.3643-24. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Gastroenterology and Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Kagawa University, Japan.
² Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Kagawa University, Japan.
³ Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Kagawa University, Japan.
⁴ Department of Medical Technology, Kagawa Prefectural University of Health Sciences, Japan.

PMID: 38811223
DOI: 10.2169/internalmedicine.3643-24

Abstract

We herein report a 40-year-old Japanese man with chronic hepatitis B genotype C (viral load 6.7 LC/mL) who developed hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) despite achieving undetectable hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA levels with nucleos (t) ide analog (NA) treatment (entecavir). Notably, his hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) level remained elevated at 388.4 IU/mL. Given the continued risk of carcinogenesis associated with HBsAg positivity, we initiated pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) therapy one month after HCC surgery. Following three periods of PEG-IFN treatment, HBsAg seroclearance (HBsAg-negative state) was achieved.

Keywords: chronic hepatitis B; hepatitis B surface antigen; hepatocellular carcinoma; nucleos (t) ide analogue; pegylated interferon.