Interferon therapy reduces incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with high risk of hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma

doi:10.4251/wjgo.123962

Advanced Search

BPG is committed to discovery and dissemination of knowledge

Home / Archive / Volume 18, Issue 11

This Article

(2)

(0)

(64)

Peer-Review Report of This Article

CrossCheck and Google Search of This Article

Academic Rules and Norms of This Article

Citation of this article

Corresponding Author of This Article

Research Domain of This Article

Article-Type of This Article

Open-Access Policy of This Article

Times Cited Counts in Google of This Article

Journal Information of This Article

Publication Name

World Journal of Gastrointestinal Oncology

ISSN

1948-5204

Publisher of This Article

Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA

- Full Article (XML)

Observational Study

Copyright: ©Author(s) 2026. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. No commercial re-use. See permissions. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.

World J Gastrointest Oncol. Nov 15, 2026; 18(11): 123962
Published online Nov 15, 2026. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.123962

Interferon therapy reduces incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with high risk of hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma

Miao Hao, Chen-Rui Liu, Meng Zhang, Xia-Qing Zhou, Zi-Cheng Jiang, Xiao-Hong Gao, Xin Zhang, Wen-Jun Wang, Yi-Kai Wang, Xiao-Li Jia, Ya-Ping Li, Shuang-Suo Dang

Miao Hao, Chen-Rui Liu, Meng Zhang, Xia-Qing Zhou, Xin Zhang, Wen-Jun Wang, Yi-Kai Wang, Xiao-Li Jia, Ya-Ping Li, Shuang-Suo Dang, Department of Infectious Diseases, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710004, Shaanxi Province, China

Zi-Cheng Jiang, Department of Infectious Diseases, Ankang Central Hospital, Ankang 725000, Shaanxi Province, China

Xiao-Hong Gao, Department of Infectious Diseases, Affiliated Hospital to Yan’an University, Yan’an 716000, Shaanxi Province, China

Co-corresponding authors: Ya-Ping Li and Shuang-Suo Dang.

Author contributions: Hao M conceived and designed the study, collected data, drafted the manuscript, planned the study, analyzed and interpreted data and performed statistical analysis; Liu CR, Zhang M, and Zhou XQ participated in analysis of clinical data, performed statistical analysis and drafted the manuscript; Jiang ZC and Gao XH participated in data collection and consultations in liver disease; Zhang X participated in critical revision of the manuscript and funding support; Wang YK participated in study design; Wang WJ and Jia XL participated in critical revision of the manuscript, consultations; Li YP and Dang SS participated in study conception and design, study supervision, data interpretation, manuscript editing and funding support, they contributed equally to this article, they are the co-corresponding authors of this manuscript; and all authors thoroughly reviewed and endorsed the final manuscript.

AI contribution statement: The authors declare that no AI tools were used in the development or writing of this manuscript and take full responsibility for its integrity, accuracy, and originality.

Supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China 2023, No. 2023YFC2308105; and Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province, No. 2023-JC-YB-770.

Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, approval No. 2022-051.

Informed consent statement: Informed consent is waived for this retrospective study, as it involves minimal risk and obtaining consent from all participants is impracticable due to the nature of existing data.

Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.

STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.

Data sharing statement: Data supporting the findings of this study are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions and are available upon request to the corresponding author.

Corresponding author: Shuang-Suo Dang, Professor, Department of Infectious Diseases, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, No. 157 West 5^th Road, Xi’an 710004, Shaanxi Province, China. dang212@126.com

Received: June 2, 2026
Revised: July 22, 2026
Accepted: September 1, 2026
Published online: November 15, 2026
Processing time: 147 Days and 7.1 Hours

Abstract

BACKGROUND

The proportion of patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is as high as 85.69% among HCC patients in China. Current anti-HBV drugs include nucleos(t)ide analogs (NAs) and interferon (IFN).

AIM

To compare the impact of NAs and IFN therapy on the occurrence of HCC in patients at high risk of HBV-related HCC.

METHODS

We enrolled 368 patients with high risk of HBV-related HCC, and 120 received subcutaneous injections of IFN, with or without NAs, constituting the IFN group. The remaining 248 patients were assigned to the NAs group, and received treatment with NAs alone.

RESULTS

For patients with a high risk of HBV-related HCC, after a 5-year treatment period, HCC incidence in the IFN group was 2.54%, while the NAs group showed a significantly higher incidence of 25.74% (P < 0.001). After propensity score matching, HCC incidence in the IFN and NAs groups was 2.94% and 22.0%, respectively (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

IFN-based therapy, compared with NAs, significantly reduced the risk of HCC in patients with high risk of HBV-related HCC.

Keywords: Interferon; Nucleotides and nucleosides; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Hepatitis B virus; High-risk population for hepatocellular carcinoma; Chronic hepatitis B

Core Tip: Based on this observational study, we compared the incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in high-risk hepatitis B virus-related HCC patients receiving interferon vs nucleoside/nucleotide analogues. For hepatitis B virus-infected individuals with high-risk factors for HCC, interferon therapy before progression to decompensated cirrhosis helps reduce the risk of HCC.