Alternative treatment methodology effective for Crohn’s disease
Questions were raised on the effectiveness of the presently followed treatment method for Crohn’s disease by an international research study, which was published in The Lancet. This led to opening up new doors for an alternative, safer, and yet far more effective treatment option for sufferers of the disease
It was remarked by Dr. Brian Feagan, Director of Robarts Clinical Trials at Robarts Research Institute at The University of Western Ontario, that this study suggests that the alternative method is far better than the currently followed one for inducing disease remission. Dr. Feagan coordinated the research trial and is an author on the study.
From News-Medical.Net:
Called a “step-up” approach, the conventional treatment for Crohn’s disease involves first administering steroids in order to control the patient’s symptoms (abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea); the next step involves administering immune-suppressing drugs, which prepare the body to receive the third medication – an antibody that curbs the inflammatory response at the root of the disease.
The alternative strategy, called “top-down” therapy, employs early use of immune-suppressing drugs combined with an antibody in order to address the disease from the start. Symptom-treating steroids may never even be needed.
The two-year study was conducted at research centres in Belgium, Holland, and Germany and involved 129 subjects with active Crohn’s disease. 64 patients received the conventional step-up treatment and 65 the combined immune-suppressing method (top-down). 60% of the top-down subjects were symptom-free by the 26th week of the study, compared to only 36% of the step-up subjects.
Lead author Dr. Geert D’Haens, of the Imelda GI Clinical Research Centre at the Imelda Hospital in Bonheiden, Belgium, remarked that this study is a milestone in treating Crohn’s disease.
