Hepatitis B Virus HBeAg-negative Genotype D Patients and Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) usually develops in patients with chronic liver disease, particularly patients with liver cirrhosis. Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) is one of the most frequent underlying causes of HCC. Several studies have demonstrated that variations in the hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotype have different effects on HCC. HBV genotypes C and D had lower responses to interferon-based therapy and higher frequencies of basal core promoter mutations than genotypes A and B.For this reason, HBV genotypes C and D seem to lead to more severe liver disease, including cirrhosis, compared with the other HBV genotypes. Because liver cirrhosis is one of the strongest HCC risk factors in CHB patients, antiviral therapy may prevent the development of liver complications such as HCC. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of liver fibrosis and other variables, such as age, sex, virological response (VR), and resistance to nucleoside/nucleotide analogue (NUC) therapy, in a population of genotype D HBeAg-negative CHB patients treated with long-term NUC therapy.