The safety and efficacy of using infliximab to induce remission of Crohn's disease has been confirmed by a report from Hungary.
The 11-center study, published in the open-access online journal BMC Gastroenterology, involved 183 women and 180 men with Crohn's disease: specifically, 114 patients with therapy-refractory disease, 195 with fistulas, 16 with both therapy-refractive Crohn's and fistulas, and 26 patients with steroid-dependent disease. Their mean age was 33.5 years; their mean duration of disease was 6.7 years.
The definition of "response to treatment" depended on whether patients had fistulae, therapy-refractory, or steroid-dependent disease, but overall, after receiving infliximab infusions (5 mg/kg) at weeks 0, 2 and 6, the response rate was 86.2% (313 of 363 patients), according to Dr. Pal Miheller from Semmelweiss University, Budapest, and colleagues.
The overall remission rate was 46%.
Co-administration of immunosuppressant therapy and shorter disease duration were both associated with significantly improved response and remission rates.
Dr. Miheller and colleagues point out that initially, due to financial considerations in their country, infliximab could be used only to induce remission, and only at the 11 centers that provided data for this report.
"Currently infliximab is available for maintenance therapy as well," they added.
BMC Gastroenterol 2009;9:66.
The 11-center study, published in the open-access online journal BMC Gastroenterology, involved 183 women and 180 men with Crohn's disease: specifically, 114 patients with therapy-refractory disease, 195 with fistulas, 16 with both therapy-refractive Crohn's and fistulas, and 26 patients with steroid-dependent disease. Their mean age was 33.5 years; their mean duration of disease was 6.7 years.
The definition of "response to treatment" depended on whether patients had fistulae, therapy-refractory, or steroid-dependent disease, but overall, after receiving infliximab infusions (5 mg/kg) at weeks 0, 2 and 6, the response rate was 86.2% (313 of 363 patients), according to Dr. Pal Miheller from Semmelweiss University, Budapest, and colleagues.
The overall remission rate was 46%.
Co-administration of immunosuppressant therapy and shorter disease duration were both associated with significantly improved response and remission rates.
Dr. Miheller and colleagues point out that initially, due to financial considerations in their country, infliximab could be used only to induce remission, and only at the 11 centers that provided data for this report.
"Currently infliximab is available for maintenance therapy as well," they added.
BMC Gastroenterol 2009;9:66.