Short- and long-term outcome of interferon therapy for chronic hepatitis B infection

Table 2 Summary of the long-term follow-up studies of interferon-α treatment on hepatitis B virus-related liver disease progression

Ref.	Study type	Number of patients (treated/controls)	Region of origin	HBeAg-positive	Treatment follow-up (yr)	Cirrhosis development (% treated vs % controls)	Significance (P value)	Cirrhosis complication development (% treated vs % controls)	Significance (P value)
Lin et al[19]	Prospective, randomized, controlled	89 (60/29)	Taiwan	100%	7.4	13.3 vs 17.2	NS	9.0 vs 14.7	NS
Lin et al[42]	Retrospective, matched controls	466 (233/233)	Taiwan	100%	6.8	17.8 vs 33.7	0.041	NA	NA
Krogsgaard et al[43]	Retrospective, multicenter controlled trials	253 (histologically evaluated)	Europe	100%	4.7	10 vs 10	NS	NA	NA
Tangkijvanich et al[44]	Retrospective, unmatched controls	139 (69/72)	Thailand	100%	5.0	10.4 vs 22.2	NS	NA	NA
Truong et al[46]	Retrospective, matched controls	62 (27/35)	Japan	59.6%	6.5	11 vs 6	NS	NA	NA
Yuen et al[47]	Prospective, matched controls	411 (208/203)	Hong Kong	100%	8.9	NA	NA	4.3 vs 1.0	0.062

HBeAg: Hepatitis e antigen; NS: Not significant; NA: Not available.