Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 21, 2017; 23(15): 2651-2659
Published online Apr 21, 2017. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i15.2651
Hepatitis B virus infection and alcohol consumption
Ayako Iida-Ueno, Masaru Enomoto, Akihiro Tamori, Norifumi Kawada
Ayako Iida-Ueno, Masaru Enomoto, Akihiro Tamori, Norifumi Kawada, Department of Hepatology, Osaka City University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka 545-8585, Japan
Author contributions: Enomoto M generated the tables; Iida-Ueno A, Enomoto M, Tamori A and Kawada N wrote the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Professor Norifumi Kawada has received grants from Bristol-Myers K.K. and Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Masaru Enomoto, Department of Hepatology, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka City University Medical School, 1-4-3 Asahimachi, Abeno-ku, Osaka 545-8585, Japan. enomoto-m@med.osaka-cu.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-6-66453905 Fax: +81-6-66350915
Received: November 16, 2016
Peer-review started: November 16, 2016
First decision: December 19, 2016
Revised: January 25, 2017
Accepted: March 2, 2017
Article in press: March 2, 2017
Published online: April 21, 2017
Core Tip

Core tip: The mechanisms by which alcohol enhances disease progression are less well understood in chronic hepatitis B than in chronic hepatitis C. The association of light-to-moderate alcohol consumption with clinical outcomes in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection appears modest. Although the threshold amount of alcohol for increasing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) risk remains unknown, heavy alcohol consumption significantly accelerates the progression of liver disease to cirrhosis and, ultimately, HCC. Alcohol abuse could impair the response to interferon-α therapy in chronic hepatitis B patients, although not fully confirmed, and can increase the risk of HCC even in patients with low HBV DNA levels during nucleoside/nucleotide therapy.