Objective: To evaluate the effects of famciclovir treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection.
Methods: Eighty-nine patients with chronic HBV infection were randomly divided into three groups. Thirty-two patients were treated with famciclovir, 29 patients and 28 patients with chronic HBV infection were treated with interferon (IFN) alpha and lamivudine, respectively, as the control.
Results: The serum HBV DNA became negative after treatment in 40.62% (13/32) of patients treated with famciclovir, 37.93% (11/29) of patients treated with IFN alpha, and 67.90% (19/28) of patients treated with lamivudine. The rate of serum HBeAg loss for the three groups were 21.88% (7/32), 41.38% (12/29) and 21.43% (6/28), respectively. The average time for patients to become serum HBV DNA negative was 1.3 months.
Conclusions: Famciclovir is an effective and safe nucleoside drug for the treatment of patients with chronic HBV infection.