Caucasian Ethnicity, but Not Treatment Cessation is Associated with HBsAg Loss Following Nucleos(t)ide Analogue-Induced HBeAg Seroconversion.

It is well appreciated that ethnicity influences the natural history and immune responses during a chronic hepatitis B infection. In this study, we explore the effect of ethnicity and treatment cessation on Hepatitis B surface Antigen (HBsAg) seroclearance in patients with Nucleos(t)ide Analogue (NA)-induced Hepatitis B e Antigen (HBeAg) seroconversion. We performed a multi-ethnic, multicentric observational cohort study. The analyzed cohort consisted of 178 mono-infected, predominantly male (75.3%) chronic hepatitis B patients of mixed ethnicity (44.4% Asians, 48.9% Caucasians) with nucleos(t)ide analogue-induced HBeAg seroconversion. Treatment was withdrawn in 105 patients and continued in 73, leading to HBsAg loss in 14 patients off- and 16 patients on-treatment, respectively. Overall, HBsAg loss rates were not affected by treatment cessation (hazard ratio 1.45,

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

T. Vanwolleghem is recipient of a 2014 mandate from the Belgian Foundation Against Cancer (mandate number: 2014-087) and received research funding from Gilead Sciences, Bristol-Myers-Squib (BMS) and Roche Diagnostics. C. Moreno acted as consultant and received research grants from BMS and Gilead. H. Van Vlierberghe received research grants from Gilead and BMS. B. Hansen has received grants from and is consultant for Intercept Pharmaceuticals. H.L.A. Janssen has received grants from and is consultant for Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gilead Sciences, Merck, Novartis, Roche, and Janssen. S. Van Hees, H. Chi, S. Bourgeois, T. Sersté, S. Francque, D. Wong, D. Sprengers and F. Nevens declare no conflicts of interest.