Crohn's disease in patients who fail infliximab therapy: what does the future hold?

Rev Gastroenterol Disord. 2007:7 Suppl 1:S20-6.

Abstract

Patients who respond to infliximab enjoy many benefits, including improvement in clinical symptoms, less disability, and a better quality of life. Unfortunately, many patients are unresponsive to infliximab therapy. They may be completely refractory to infliximab therapy (ie, primary nonresponders), they may have shown an initial response to therapy that subsequently diminished, or they may be hypersensitive to the drug. For these patients, second-generation tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors will soon be available; adalimumab and certolizumab pegol are the two agents most likely to gain Food and Drug Administration approval for the treatment of Crohn's disease. This article looks at recent studies using these newer TNF inhibitors in patients in whom infliximab treatment has failed as well as in those who have never received infliximab.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Adalimumab
  • Anti-Infective Agents / therapeutic use*
  • Antibodies, Monoclonal / therapeutic use*
  • Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized
  • Certolizumab Pegol
  • Crohn Disease / drug therapy*
  • Humans
  • Immunoglobulin Fab Fragments / therapeutic use
  • Infliximab
  • Polyethylene Glycols / therapeutic use
  • Prognosis
  • Remission Induction / methods
  • Treatment Failure
  • Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / antagonists & inhibitors

Substances

  • Anti-Infective Agents
  • Antibodies, Monoclonal
  • Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized
  • Immunoglobulin Fab Fragments
  • Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha
  • Polyethylene Glycols
  • Infliximab
  • Adalimumab
  • Certolizumab Pegol