Association Between Nucleoside Analogues and Risk of Hepatitis B Virus–Related Hepatocellular Carcinoma Recurrence Following Liver Resection

To investigate the association between nucleoside analogue use and risk of tumor recurrence in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)--related HCC after curative surgery. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A nationwide cohort study between October 2003 and September 2010. Data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. Among 100 938 newly diagnosed HCC patients, we identified 4569 HBV-related HCC patients who received curative liver resection for HCC between October 2003 and September 2010. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The risk of first tumor recurrence was compared between patients not taking nucleoside analogues (untreated cohort, n = 4051) and patients taking nucleoside analogues (treated cohort, n = 518). Cumulative incidences and hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated after adjusting for competing mortality.

The treated cohort had a higher prevalence of liver cirrhosis when compared with the untreated cohort (48.6% vs 38.7%; P