| [ Summary ] |
Interferon therapy has been used for chronic hepatitis B (HBV). However, the effects of this therapy have not been adequate, and it is hard to apply this therapy to patients with liver cirrhosis, owing to deficiencies in platelet counts and/or the incidence of rebounding after therapy. For these cases, lamivudine therapy has been made widely available in Japan, because lamivudine can suppress HBV replication with high efficiency. It has been reported that lamivudine improves the prognosis for patients with fulminant hepatitis and patients with acute exacerbation of chronic hepatitis. On the other hand, lamivudine escape mutant (YMDD mutants) may emerge in long term therapy, and the incidence of YMDD mutations increases with increases in the duration of therapy. Thus, careful observation is needed to treat and follow up on patients receiving lamivudine therapy before optimal standards for application and duration and timing of therapy may be established. |