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Page 4 of 8 Chen et al. Hepatoma Res 2019;5:25 I http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2394-5079.2019.12

Table 1. Demographics of chronic HBsAg carriers with and without HCC
HBsAg carriers P value
Without HCC HCC Univariate Multivariate
Total 14,997 238
Male 8,793 (58.6%) 212 (89.1%) < 0.001 < 0.001
Age at enrollment (years) 34.96 ± 10.08 43.32 ± 11.18 < 0.001 < 0.001
Liver cirrhosis 407 (2.7%) 167 (70.2%) < 0.001 < 0.001
Initial ALT (U/L) 63.22 ± 206.16 123.72 ± 264.12 < 0.001 0.434
Maximal ALT (U/L) 130.63 ± 310.75 310.73 ± 487.70 < 0.001 < 0.001
Anti-HBV therapy 876 (5.8%) 55 (23.1) < 0.001 < 0.001
Thymosin 13 (0.08%) 1 (0.4%)
IFN/pegIFN 130 (0.8%) 6 (2.5%)
LAM/ADV/TBV 342 (2.3%) 31 (13.0%)
ETV/TDF 386 (2.6%) 17 (7.1%)
Follow-up (years) 9.96 ± 7.66 12.45 ± 6.23 < 0.001 0.001

ALT: alanine aminotransferase; ADV: adefovir; ETV: entecavir; IFN: interferon; pegIFN: pegylated interferon; LAM: lamivudine; TBV:
telbivudine; TDF: tenofovir

Figure 1. Patient flowchart. AFP: alpha-fetoprotein; ALT: alanine aminotransferase; HCC: hepatocellular carcinoma; US: ultrasound

via histology or cytology in 119 (50%) patients. The mean tumor size was smaller (2.72 vs. 4.59 cm, P < 0.001)
in the regular follow-up group than in the out-of-schedule group. The regular follow-up group had the highest
survival rate (43.8%) of the three groups (P < 0.001) at end of the study period. There was no difference in age
at diagnosis or age at death between the groups.

Of the 130 HCC cases detected during regular follow-up, 47 (36.2%) patients had at least one liver nodule
identified via US during the three months before the diagnosis. Sixteen (12.3%) of these patients had three
or more nodules.

During the study period, 931 patients received anti-HBV therapy. The medications administered were:
thymosin (14 patients); interferon or pegylated interferon (136 patients); lamivudine, adefovir, or telbivudine
(373 patients); and entecavir or tenofovir (403 patients). More patients in the HCC group received anti-HBV
therapy than in the non-HCC HBsAg-carrier group (Table 1; P < 0.001).