Researchers, following 508 patients with Crohn’s disease, found treatment of moderate to severe Crohn’s disease with infliximab plus azathioprine allows more patients to achieve remission and mucosal healing than therapy with azathioprine alone, according to the release. The patients were randomized to treatment groups — 169 infliximab monotherapy, 170 azathioprine monotherapy or 169 infliximab plus azathioprine combination therapy — and underwent colonoscopies at baseline and again at week 26.
“These study results are strong enough to change clinical practice,” William Sandborn, MD, gastroenterologist and vice chair of the Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said in the release. “They have certainly changed mine.”
Fifty-seven percent of patients who received combination therapy with infliximab and azathioprine achieved steroid-free remission after 26 weeks, compared to 44 percent of patients who achieved remission with infliximab monotherapy and 30 percent with azathioprine alone, according to the release.
The study is published in the April 15, 2010 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Read the Mayo Clinic’s release on combination therapy for Crohn’s disease.
