The search for cost-effective treatment of chronic hepatitis B.

摘要

Treatment of chronic hepatitis B remains challenging due to medication-resistant viral mutations, unanswered questions for initiation and duration of treatment, and risk for chronic liver complications. More than 400 million people worldwide are chronically infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV). Of those, an estimated 1 million die annually of HBV-related liver diseases. In the past decade, HBV-related hospitalizations, cancers, and deaths have more than doubled in the United States,,2 Cirrhosis develops in 15%-20% of actively infected HBV patients within 5 years. For those patients, the incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is increased, with 70%-90% of HCC cases occurring in cirrhotics.