C. Camma et al., Interferon and prevention of hepatocellular carcinoma in viral cirrhosis: an evidence-based approach, J HEPATOL, 34(4), 2001, pp. 593-602
Background/Aims: To evaluate by meta-analysis of available literature wheth
er interferon (IFN) reduces the incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)
in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV)-relate
d Child A cirrhosis.
Methods: Three randomized controlled trials and 15 nonrandomized controlled
trials, including 4614 patients and comparing IFN to no treatment, were se
lected. Data on the incidence of HCC in IFN treated and untreated patients
were extracted from each study. Meta-analysis by the DerSimonian and Laird
risk difference (RD) method was used to pool observations.
Results: A different incidence of HCC between treated and untreated cirrhot
ic patients was observed for HCV (overall RD -12.8%; 95% CI -8.3 to -17.2%,
P < 0.0001) and HBV (overall RD -6.4%; 95% CI - 2.8 to -10%, P < 0.001). I
n HCV-related cirrhosis, the rate of HCC development was lower in sustained
responders to IFN than in untreated patients (overall RD -19.1%; 95% CI -
13.1 to similar to 25.2, P < 0.00001). With low heterogeneity among trials
(P = 0.053), and also in nonresponders vs, untreated patients (overall RD -
11.8%; 95% CI -6.4 to -19.1%, P < 0.0001), although with significant hetero
geneity. Inconsistency among the studies was a major problem, both for HCV
(chi (2) = 58.16 with 13 DF; P < 0.0001) and HBV (<chi>(2) = 26.4 with 6 DF
; P = 0.0001) related cirrhosis, and also when follow-up was shorter than 6
0 months. Consistent results were only observed when assessing data from Eu
ropean reports: in this subgroup no preventive effect of HCC was shown for
HBV (overall RD - 4.8%; 95% CI - 11.1-1.5%, P, not significant), and only a
weak effect for HCV (overall RD -10%; 95% CI -5.9 to -14.2%; P < 0.0001).
Conclusions: Literature data pooling suggests a slight preventive effect of
IFN on HCC development in patients with HCV-related cirrhosis. The magnitu
de of this effect is low and the observed benefit might be due to spurious
associations. The preventive effect is more evident among sustained respond
ers to IFN. IFN does not seem to affect the rate of HCC in HBV-related cirr
hosis. (C) 2001 European Association for the Study of the Liver. Published
by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.