A prospective study on chemotherapy-induced hepatitis B virus reactivation in chronic HBs Ag carriers with hematologic malignancies and pre-emptive therapy with nucleoside analogues.

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BlankA prospective study on chemotherapy-induced hepatitis B virus reactivation

in chronic HBs Ag carriers with hematologic malignancies and pre-emptive therapy

with nucleoside analogues.

Munci Ya?cy, Kadyr Acar, Gulsan Turkoz Sucak, Zeynep Aki, Gulendam Bozdayi, and

Rauf Haznedar

Leuk Lymphoma, August 1, 2006; 47(8): 1608-1612.

Chemotherapy-induced hepatitis B virus (HBV) reactivation is a serious problem

in chronic HBV carriers with hematologic malignancies. In 12 patients with

hematologic malignancies, we performed a prospective study to determine the

effectiveness of nucleoside analogues in the pre-emptive therapy of

chemotherapy-induced HBV reactivation. HBV reactivation occurred in seven

patients (58.3%) whereas five of the seven patients (71%) responded to

nucleoside analogue therapy. HBV reactivation-related acute liver failure and

death was not observed in the present study. All five patients with chronic

lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) experienced chemotherapy-induced HBV reactivation

regardless of the chemotherapy regimen. Therefore, we suggest that CLL carries a

significant risk of chemotherapy-induced HBV reactivation. The pre-emptive

therapy of chemotherapy-induced HBV reactivation appears to be safe, based on

the results of this pilot study. Pre-emptive therapy enables the definition of

high-risk patients who cannot be identified by primary prophylaxis.

PMID: 16966273