Scientists from Northwestern University found two new treatments for Crohn’s disease showed roughly equal performance in a clinical trial.
This allows clinicians and patients to make treatment choices based on tolerance.
The research is published in The Lancet and was conducted by Stephen Hanauer et al.
Crohn’s disease (CD) is a chronic, progressive inflammatory bowel disease, that causes abdominal pain, weight loss, and fatigue.
Treatment for CD has typically focused on alleviating symptoms to achieve clinical remission using corticosteroids or immunomodulators, but a need for more effective treatment remains.
Recently, several biologic agents have been approved for use. Adalimumab is a monoclonal antibody that reduces inflammatory cytokines by inhibiting tumor necrosis factor-alpha.
Ustekinumab is another monoclonal antibody, though the drug targets a different set of proteins: interleukin 12 and interleukin 23.
In the study, the team tested nearly 400 patients with Crohn’s disease and assigned them to receive ustekinumab or adalimumab.
No deaths occurred through one year of study, though slightly more patients in the ustekinumab group discontinued study treatment before one year had elapsed.
Further, patient-reported measures of disease severity decreased similarly over the course of the study.
The team found both treatment regimens resulted in clinical remission with similar toxicity profiles. The findings should inform provider and patient decisions in therapy selection.
There are numerous options for patients with the moderate-severe disease.
However, the key is to treat patients with an effective regimen and treat targets as early in the course as possible since doctors do not have any drugs that impact fibrosis once it occurs.
If you care about bowel health, please read studies about the cause of inflammatory bowel disease, and this diet could reduce inflammation by boosting the gut.
For more information about bowel diseases, please see recent studies on why some people are more likely to have bowel diseases, and results showing this diet could improve weight loss, and gut health.
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