Chronic hepatitis B: Advances in treatment

Table 2 Main advantages and disadvantages of pegylated interferon alpha and nucleos(t)ides analogues in chronic hepatitis B[6]

	Peg-IFN	Nucleos(t)ides analogues
Advantages	Finite duration (usually 48 wk)	Potent antiviral effect
	Higher rates of anti-HBe and anti-HBs seroconversion with 12 mo of therapy	Excellent tolerance, good safety
	Absence of resistance	Oral administration (once daily)
		No contraindication for treatment
Disadvantages	Moderate antiviral effect	Unknown (perhaps indefinite) duration of treatment
	Inferior tolerability	Rare HBsAg loss
	Risk of adverse events	Risk of viral resistance
	Subcutaneous injections	Unknown long-term safety
	Contraindications in specific patient subgroups

Peg-IFN: Pegylated interferon; HBsAg: Hepatitis B surface antigen.