Several oral and poster presentations at the annual Digestive Disease Week (DDW 2009) meeting taking place this week in Chicago looked at entecavir (Baraclude) as a treatment for chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection.

Topics included use of entecavir for patients who did not respond completely or relapsed after treatment with adefovir (Hepsera), high barrier to entecavir drug resistance after 6 years of therapy, and regression of fibrosis in long-term entecavir recipients.

In addition, researchers presented findings on association between HBV replication and ALT levels, as well as predictors of liver cancer among patients younger than 40 years in the REVEAL-HBV study.

Entecavir (ETV) Therapy in Chronic Hepatitis B Patients Previously Treated with Adefovir (ADV) with Incomplete Response On-Treatment or Relapse Off-Treatment
N Leung and others. DDW 2009.

Long-Term Histological Improvement with Entecavir (ETV) Therapy in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis B (CHB) from Japanese and Worldwide Development Programs
Y Liaw and others. DDW 2009.

Entecavir Maintains a High Genetic Barrier to HBV Resistance Through 6 Years in Naïve Patients
D Tenney and others. DDW 2009.

Regression of Fibrosis/Cirrhosis with Long-Term Entecavir Therapy in Chronic Hepatitis B (CHB) Patients with Baseline Bridging Fibrosis or Cirrhosis: Results from Studies ETV-022, -027 and -901
E Schiff and others. DDW 2009.

Association between HBV Replication and Serum ALT Changes is not Dependent on HBV Genotype and Mutants
H Yang and others. DDW 2009.

Risk and Predictors of HCC in People Less than 40 years of Age: Update from the R.E.V.E.A.L.-HBV Study
C Chen and others. DDW 2009.