Seungwoon Baek

Despite a higher rate of local recurrence, RFA was found to be as effective as surgical resection for the treatment of single small HCC in patients with well-preserved liver function, in terms of the incidence of remote recurrence and the patients' likelihood of achieving overall and/or recurrence-free survival.

The long-term clinical impact of low-level viremia (LLV; <2,000 IU/mL) is not well understood. As a result, it is unclear whether the development of LLV during entecavir monotherapy requires a change in therapy. A retrospective cohort of 875 treatment-naive chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) monoinfected patients (mean age 47.7 years, male = 564 [65.5%], cirrhosis = 443 [50.6%]) who received entecavir monotherapy were analyzed for the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The HCC risk was

UNLABELLED: Controversy exists about whether antiviral therapy (AVT) should be recommended for compensated cirrhosis patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and detectable, but low, serum HBV-DNA levels. A retrospective cohort of 385 treatment-naïve, HBV-related compensated cirrhosis patients (mean age: 51.1 ± 9.7 years; 66% male) with low HBV-DNA levels (<2,000 IU/mL) was assessed for the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). During a median of 5.6 years of follow-up, H

The purpose of this investigation was 2-fold: (a) to complete a thorough search of published literature related to clinical studies on the success and failure of nonsurgical retreatment, and (b) to assign levels of evidence to these publications. Clinical studies related to success and failure of retreatment since 1970 were identified using both electronic and manual literature searches. After identification of pertinent literature, each article received a level of evidence (LOE) from one (high)

BACKGROUND: Given the complexity of managing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a multidisciplinary approach (MDT) is recommended to optimize management of HCC patients. However, evidence suggesting that MDT improves patient outcome is limited. METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort study of all patients newly-diagnosed with HCC between 2005 and 2013 (n = 6,619). The overall survival (OS) rates between the patients who were and were not managed via MDT were compared in the entire cohort (n =

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Several staging systems have been proposed for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Among them, only the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) and Hong Kong Liver Cancer (HKLC) staging systems also recommend treatment modality. This study was designed to see whether BCLC and HKLC staging can guide treatment strategy, so analyzed whether patients survival is better for those who received recommended therapy by each staging system. METHODS: A total of 3515 treatment-naïve, newly diagn

BACKGROUND: There is insufficient information about HBsAg levels and their correlation with serum hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA in chronic hepatitis B (CHB). AIMS: We aimed to describe HBsAg levels during various phases of CHB and to investigate the correlation with serum HBV DNA levels. METHODS: A total of 645 treatment-naïve Korean CHB patients were included in this retrospective cross-sectional study. They were categorized into immune tolerance (IT, n=56), HBeAg-positive hepatitis (EPH, n=150),

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The present study aimed to assess the incidence of advanced cirrhotic complications and to identify the risk factors associated with such complications in chronic hepatitis C. METHODS: The data of 1137 chronic hepatitis C patients were retrospectively reviewed. We analysed the incidence rate and risk factors for 'disease progression', as defined by the occurrence of an increase of at least 2 points in the Child-Pugh score, oesophageal/gastric variceal bleeding, spontaneous bacte

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: A single nucleotide polymorphism near the interleukin-28B (IL28B) gene has been shown to predict hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment response. We aim to determine the role of the IL28B genotype in Asian patients. METHODS: A total of 118 patients (all Korean, 55 patients with genotype 1 infection and 63 patients with genotype 2 infection) were consecutively enrolled and analyzed. RESULTS: The sustained virological response (SVR) rate was 74% (87/118), while 26 patients (22%) re

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Clinical course of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients presenting with low-level viremia (LLV) is unclear. METHODS: A total of 565 HBV-related HCC patients with LLV (detectable but HBV DNA ≤ 2000 IU/mL) at the time of HCC diagnosis were analyzed. Based on patterns of HBV DNA levels during follow-up, patients were categorized into three groups: maintained virologic remission (MVR), LLV, and flare. Overall survival was compared between those

BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) <2 cm in diameter has a favorable prognosis. Therefore surgical resection of small HCC is associated with good outcomes. However, the predisposing factors of prognosis following resection of HCC remain ill-defined. The aims of the present study were to identify the clinicopathologic characteristics and outcomes of patients with small HCC and analyze the predisposing factors for tumor recurrence after surgery. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 180 pat

BACKGROUND AND AIM: In the present study, we evaluated the safety and efficacy of combination therapy with pegylated interferon and ribavirin for treating chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients aged 60 years and older. METHODS: A total of 314 CHC patients, who were treated with combination therapy, were classified into three groups according to age: (i) younger than 50 years (n = 137); (ii) 50-59 years (n = 109); and (iii) 60 years or older (n = 68). The sustained virological response (SVR) and disc