loss of surface antigen because of our findings,’ he said. This includes Professor Yuen’s own research. He has run more than 40 clinical trials over the past decade and recently reported a highly promising drug which has the potential to functionally cure patients. In that study, published late last year in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, more than 450 chronic hepatitis B carriers in Hong Kong and other regions were given a weekly injection of the drug over six months, then followed up six months later to see if the virus was still detectable. About 10 per cent of the group had no surface antigen of the virus detected – 10 times more than naturally occurs. In patients who had lower levels of the virus to start with, the cure rate rose to as high as 16 to 25 per cent. ‘Bringing patients to the state of losing the surface antigen not only decreases their risk of HCC, it also means they can be taken off the standard treatment regime, which at the moment requires lifelong treatment,’ he said. ‘Our results are already a breakthrough, although we are continuing with Phase III clinical trials and we are working on combining different drugs to improve the result. I hope within two or three years we can achieve a 30 per cent cure rate.’ The work of Professor Yuen and his team has put HKUMed on the world map. Big pharmaceutical companies regularly seek his advice and collaboration, and his latest findings of the studies were selected every year to present on stage in the two most prestigious liver meetings, namely the European Association for the Study of the Liver and the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease. His laboratory has conducted studies with other laboratories and centres around the world, in places such as the US, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan, and at other universities in Hong Kong. Another important research area undertaken by Professor Yuen and his team is the detection of hidden or ‘occult’ hepatitis B infection, which does not show up on standard tests. Occult infections can cause serious problems for patients who require immunosuppressive treatment, such as for cancer or transplants, because the treatment can reactivate the infection which, in the worst cases, can cause death. On the whole, Professor Yuen’s work has contributed globally towards the WHO’s goal of eliminating hepatitis B, which is highly preventable with vaccination. That deadline is 2030, although he believes it will take a little longer. ‘I would say it can be done by 2050,’ he said – and his research will contribute to that achievement. ↓Professor Yuen hopes his team's newly discovered treatment could achieve a 30 per cent cure rate among chronic hepatitis B patients and free them from the standard lifelong treatment regime. Reference 1. World Health Organization. Hepatitis B [Internet]. Geneva: WHO; 2022 [cited 11 Apr 2023]. Available from: https://www.who.int/ news-room/fact-sheets/detail/hepatitis-b . 15 HKUMed News Summer 2023
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