Combination therapy for chronic hepatitis B: The future and beyond

Abstract

To the Editor:We read with great interest the article entitled “Phase IV randomized clinical study: Peginterferon alfa-2a with adefovir or entecavir pre-therapy for HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B.” by Hsu et al. in the December 2017 online edition.1 Over the past decades, antiviral therapies have dramatically improved long-term outcomes of chronic hepatitis B (CHB). For HBeAg-positive patients, early HBeAg seroconversion is an important treatment end point for a promising outcome. Through immune modulatory effect, pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) achieved higher rates of HBeAg seroconversion than nucleos(t)ide analogues (NA). However, the response rate of PEG-IFN is unsatisfactory. Therefore, combination therapies may have potential benefits.