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BackgroundThe efficacy of infliximab has been demonstrated in patients with both acute severe and moderate-severe ulcerative colitis (UC). However, there is a need for 'real-life data' to ensure that conclusions from trial settings are applicable in usual care. We therefore examined the national experience of anti-tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) therapy in UC.MethodsCase notes review of patients with UC who had received compassionate access (CA) anti-TNF-α therapy from prospectively maintained inflammatory bowel disease databases of six Australian adult teaching hospitals.ResultsPatients either received drug for acute severe UC (ASUC) failing steroids (n = 29) or for medically refractory UC (MRUC) (n = 35). In ASUC, the treating physicians judged that anti-TNF-α therapy was successful in 20/29 patients (69%); in these cases, anti-TNF-α was able to be discontinued (after 1-3 infusions in 19/20 responders) as clinical remission was achieved. Consistent with this perceived benefit, only 7/29 (24%) subsequently underwent colectomy during a median follow up of 12 months (interquartile range (IQR) 5-16). Eight of the 35 patients with MRUC (23%) required colectomy during a median follow up of 28 months (IQR 11-43). The majority of these patients (20/35 or 57%) had anti-TNF-α therapy for ≥4 months, whereas, 27/29 (93%) of ASUC patients had CA for ≤3 months.ConclusionsThese data show an excellent overall benefit for anti-TNF-α therapy in both ASUC and MRUC. In particular, only short-duration anti-TNF-α was required in ASUC. These real-life data thus support the clinical trial data and should lead to broader use of this therapy in UC.

Original publication

DOI

10.1111/imj.12732

Type

Journal article

Journal

Internal medicine journal

Publication Date

06/2015

Volume

45

Pages

659 - 666

Addresses

Inflammatory Bowel Disease Service, Department of Gastroenterology and School of Medicine, University of Adelaide at Royal Adelaide Hospital, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.

Keywords

Australian Inflammatory Bowel Disease Association (AIBDA), Humans, Colitis, Ulcerative, Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha, Treatment Outcome, Retrospective Studies, Prospective Studies, Adult, Aged, Middle Aged, Australia, Female, Male, Compassionate Use Trials, Infliximab