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Hépato-Gastro & Oncologie Digestive

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Combination therapy for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B and future perspectives Volume 14, supplement 5, Numéro spécial : Prise en charge de l’hépatite chronique B en 2007

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Clinique universitaire d’Hépato-Gastroentérologie – Pôle DIGI-DUNE, et Unité Inserm U 548, CHU de Grenoble

The use of combination therapy for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B is still a matter of debate. However, given the relative efficacy and the risk of development of resistance when currently available drugs are used in monotherapy, combination therapy could be offered as first line treatment in patients with severe liver disease (F3-F4 according to Metavir classification) or in patients without a significant decrease of HBV DNA levels after 12 to 24 weeks of monotherapy. Although the combination of pegylated interferon and lamivudine has not been shown to be more efficient than pegylated interferon alone, the viral load decrease was more important in the combination therapy group. Also, the combination of nucleos(t)ide analogs has not been shown to be more efficient than analogs monotherapy. However, it results in a significant decrease in the incidence of resistance.