For patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treated with curative radiofrequency ablation (RFA), the effect of entecavir (ETV) vs. tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) on recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) remains unclear. We aimed to compare the outcomes of patients receiving ETV or TDF after RFA. This study consecutively collected patients who were treated with ETV (n = 202) or TDF (n = 102) for chronic hepatitis B (CHB) after curative RFA of HCC from December 2015 to January 2021 at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center. There were 130 patients in the ETV group and 77 patients in the TDF group after we performed 1-to-n propensity score matching. Kaplan−Meier and Cox regression analyses were performed to validate possible risk factors for RFS and OS. In addition, we estimated the curative effect of ETV and TDF for HBV-related hepatitis by recording the change in serum HBV DNA and ALBI grade after RFA. During the study period (median 34.1 (interquartile range: 19.6−47.4 months) months), 123 (40.5%) patients suffered HCC recurrence, and 15 (4.9%) died. In the full cohort, the probability of HCC recurrence (41.6% vs. 37.3%, p = 0.49) and overall survival (95% vs. 95.1%, p = 0.39) at 5 years were similar between the ETV and TDF groups. In the matched cohort, HCC recurrence (40.8% vs. 40.3%, p = 0.35) and overall survival (96.9% vs. 93.5%, p = 0.12) at 5 years were similar between the ETV and TDF groups. Furthermore, the early RFS (<2 years) did not differ significantly between the two groups in the full and matched cohorts (p = 0.26, p = 0.13). Compared with the ALBI grade before RFA, the ALBI grade of 80 patients (41%) remained stable or improved in the ETV group and 64 patients (64%) in the TDF group (p < 0.001). The mean time of serum HBV DNA reduction to 0 was 9.13 (95% CI: 5.92−12.33) and 2.75 (95% CI: 2.01−3.49) months in the ETV and TDF groups, respectively (p = 0.015). The RFS and OS of patients after curative RFA for HCC were not significantly different between the ETV and TDF groups. TDF therapy was associated with a better effect of protecting liver function and reducing the load of HBV. Further validation studies are needed.
Keywords: chronic hepatitis B; comparative effectiveness; entecavir; hepatocellular carcinoma; tenofovir disoproxil fumarate.