Long-term treatment of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) with nucleos(t)ide analogues is often necessary to achieve durable viral suppression. Therefore, current guidelines recommend the most potent drugs with optimal resistance profiles. Entecavir (ETV), tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) and tenofovir alafenamide (TAF) are the first-line monotherapies for CHB. All of these drugs are highly effective in suppressing viral replication but with slightly different safety profiles. This review provides an overview of the long-term efficacy and safety data that have become available over the 10 years since ETV and TDF were first approved for the treatment of chronic hepatitis, and recent data on TAF in patients with CHB.
| SAFETYETV and TDF have been used for more than 10 years for the treatment of CHB, whereas TAF was approved for this indication in 2016.ETV and TDF have been shown to have excellent safety profiles and to be well tolerated by most patients, including those with advanced and decompensated cirrhosis. ETV is a nucleoside analogue, and TDF and TAF are nucleotide analogues. All these agents are given once daily at a fixed oral dose. 9-11 Because ETV and TDF are excreted mainly or completely by the kidneys, dose adjustments are required in patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) <50 mL/ min/1.73 m 2 . However, no dose adjustment is required for TAF in patients older than 65, patients with liver impairment, renal impairment