Randomised clinical trial: the benefit of combination therapy with adefovir and lamivudine for chronic hepatitis B

Summary Background Combination antiviral therapy holds the promise of increasing response rates while decreasing antiviral resistance, but has yet to be shown to be beneficial or necessary in chronic hepatitis B. Aim To evaluate the benefit of combination therapy with adefovir and lamivudine versus adefovir alone in maintaining virological, biochemical and histological responses. Methods Patients with chronic hepatitis B with and without previous lamivudine therapy were randomised to receive adefovir alone (10 mg/daily) or adefovir and lamivudine (100 mg/daily) for up to 192 weeks. Study endpoints were (i) maintained virological (HBV DNA