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HEPATITIS

Biological Gradient of Chronic Hepatitis B

Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology volume 18, page 593 (2021)Cite this article

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In 2015, the World Health Organization estimated that 257 million people worldwide had chronic hepatitis B (CHB), which caused 887,000 deaths annually. These deaths are the consequence of disease complications, namely cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which occur in ~25% of the untreated CHB population.

In 2006, Chen et al. reported a ‘biological gradient’ of HCC development based on serum HBV DNA levels in CHB. This large prospective Taiwanese study (n = 3,653) was the first to show that the higher the serum HBV DNA levels, the higher the risk of HCC development. In the same year, Iloeje et al. also demonstrated this ‘biological gradient’ of serum HBV DNA with respect to the development of cirrhosis. These findings were groundbreaking and made an important contribution to the direction of CHB treatment and drug development.

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References

Original article

  • Chen, C. J. et al. Risk of hepatocellular carcinoma across a biological gradient of serum hepatitis B virus DNA level. JAMA 295, 65–73 (2006)

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Related article

  • Iloeje, U. H. et al. Predicting cirrhosis risk based on the level of circulating hepatitis B viral load. Gastroenterology 130, 678–686 (2006)

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  1. Department of Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital & State Key Laboratory of Liver Research, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Man-Fung Yuen

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  1. Man-Fung Yuen
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Correspondence to Man-Fung Yuen.

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Yuen, MF. Biological Gradient of Chronic Hepatitis B. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 18, 593 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-021-00504-7

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