Performance of Risk Estimation for Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Chronic Hepatitis B (REACH‐B) score in classifying treatment eligibility under 2012 Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL) guideline for chronic hepatitis B patients

Summary Background REACH-B [Risk Estimation for Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) in Chronic Hepatitis B] scoring system was developed to predict the risk of HCC in noncirrhotic chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. Aim To evaluate the discriminatory performance of REACH-B scoring system in classifying anti-viral treatment eligibility of CHB patients according to the 2012 Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL) treatment guideline. Methods A total of 904 noncirrhotic CHB were enrolled. Patients' age, gender, liver biochemistry, HBeAg status and HBV DNA levels were recorded. Results The minimum REACH-B risk score for patients to be eligible for anti-viral treatment was 7 for HBeAg-positive and 6 for HBeAg-negative patients. Among them, increasing REACH-B score was not significantly associated with eligibility for treatment [adjusted odds ratio (OR): 1.210, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.979–1.494, P = 0.078] in HBeAg-positive patients, as shown by logistic regression analysis after adjusting for gender. In HBeAg-negative patients, REACH-B score significantly predicted the treatment eligibility (adjusted OR: 1.783, 95% CI: 1.607–1.979, P < 0.001). Discriminatory ability of REACH-B score to classify eligibility was poor for HBeAg-positive patients ≥40 years [area under receiver operating characteristic (AUC): 0.664, 95% CI: 0.533–0.795], but good/excellent for HBeAg-positive patients <40 years (AUC: 0.903; 95% CI: 0.841–0.964), HBeAg-negative patients ≥45 years (AUC: 0.883; 95% CI: 0.848–0.917) and HBeAg-negative patients <45 years (AUC: 0.907; 95% CI: 0.874–0.940). Conclusion The discriminatory performance of the REACH-B scoring system in classifying anti-viral treatment eligibility based on the 2012 APASL guideline was good/excellent, except for ≥40 years old HBeAg-positive patients.