Investigation of Hepatitis B Serology in Oncological Patients Receiving Chemotherapy

Objective: In this study, we evaluated whether HBV serology had been investigated before chemotherapy or not, and whether antiviral prophylaxis had been given or not to hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)and/or hepatitis B core antibody (antiHBc IgG)-positive patients. Methods: The study was planned retrospectively between May 2012 and April 2014. Patients who were followed in the oncology outpatient clinic and whose chemotherapy was initiated due to solid organ malignancy were included. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows. Version 22.0 (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) program was used for statistical evaluation. Results: As a result of the study, the data of 1476 regular follow-up patients were reached. 49.4% of the patients were male. The mean age was calculated as 60.6±13.3. Of the patients, 864 (58.1%) were screened for HBV infection. For screening, HBsAg and anti-HBs were used together in 53.8% of the patients, and only HBsAg was used in 4.3% of them. Anti-HBc IgG was not used in any of the patients. HBsAg positivity was 3.5% and antiHBs positivity was 37.9% of the screened patients. Of HBsAgpositive patients, 74.1% was started prophylactic antivirals (entecavir in 2 patients, lamivudine in 21 patients), whereas eight patients did not receive prophylaxis. Conclusions: It was determined that HBV serology was investigated in most of the patients who would receive chemotherapy but the serologic parameters used for investigation were not suitable in most cases. Further studies are needed to increase awareness on this issue. Klimik Dergisi 2018; 31(2): 101-5.