Comment on “48-Week Outcome after Cessation of Nucleos(t)‎ide Analogue Treatment in Chronic Hepatitis B Patient and the Associated Factors with Relapse”

الملخص EN

We read with great interest the study conducted by Wen-xiong Xu et al.

published in Canadian Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology [1].

The authors indicated that nucleos(t)ide analogues (NA) cessation is safe under supervision.

Age and hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) level can be predictive factors for virologic relapse.

The data of the study demonstrated that, among 62 enrolled patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), a total of 23 patients (37.1%) experienced nonrelapse (Category A), while four patients (6.5%) remained with virologic relapse (Category B), 14 (22.6%) changed to nonrelapse before a transient virological relapse (Category C), and 21 (33.8%) were treated again with NAs due to clinical relapse (Category D).

The study conducted by Xu et al.

was elegantly designed and the results are very inspiring.

However, the nonsustained response rate of up to 62.9% makes us a bit worried about long-term benefit for CHB patient after NAs cessation.