Interferon therapy improves survival in patients with hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma after curative surgery: a meta-analysis.

Background And Aim: A novel study found interferon enhanced antitumor activity of anti-PD-1-based immunotherapy and played a crucial role in improving efficacy on HCC, but the opposite results about the efficacy of interferon on HBV-related HCC were obtained from previous clinical studies and meta-analyses. Thus, this meta-analysis aimed to re-evaluate whether interferon could improve survival and reduce recurrence of patients with HBV-related HCC after curative surgery.

Methods: MEDLINE/PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Web of Science and CNKI were searched for eligible studies from inception to November 2022 and a meta-analysis was done.