The serum hepatitis B core-related antigen (HBcrAg) is considered a surrogate marker of the amount and activity of intrahepatic covalently closed circular DNA. This study aims to investigate the virological characteristics of HBcrAg in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients and to reveal the hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) risk factors of hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-negative patients. Hepatitis B core-related antigen was measured in 245 naive CHB patients before receiving nucleoside/nucleotide analog (NA) therapy. All patients were receiving NA (entecavir, tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, and tenofovir alafenamide) continuously for more than 1year until the end of follow-up, and they did not have a history of HCC. Hepatitis B viral status was compared between 106 HBeAg-positive and 139 HBeAg-negative patients. Median HBcrAg levels were significantly higher in HBeAg-positive patients than in HBeAg-negative patients (>6.8 vs 3.7log U/mL, P<0.01). In HBeAg-negative patients, higher HBcrAg levels were associated with cirrhosis (119 chronic hepatitis/20 cirrhosis=3.5/4.7log U/mL, P=0.03) and higher serum hepatitis B virus DNA. During a median follow-up of 5.28 (1.03-12.0) years, the 5-year cumulative HCC incidence rate was 5.4% in the HBeAg-negative cohort. In the multivariate Cox regression analysis, higher HBcrAg levels at 1year were independent predictive factors for HCC development in HBeAg-negative patients who received NA therapy (cutoff value, 4.1log U/mL; hazard ratio, 6.749; 95% confidence interval, 1.334-34.15, P<0.01) and even in non-cirrhosis patients. Hepatitis B core-related antigen was useful for understanding disease progression in CHB patients and for stratifying the risk for carcinogenesis in HBeAg-negative patients receiving NA therapy.
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