Stelara linked with better outcomes in Crohn’s
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Treatment with Stelara was associated with superior outcomes in patients with Crohn’s disease who previously failed anti-TNF therapy, according to study results.
Marieke J. Pierik, MD, PhD, from the department of gastroenterology and hepatology at Maastricht University Medical Center, and colleagues sought to compared Stelara (ustekinumab, Janssen) with Entyvio (vedolizumab, Takeda) in a real-life setting.
“No head-to-head trials comparing vedolizumab vs. ustekinumab in anti-TNF refractory CD patients are available or planned,” they wrote.
Researchers included patients with CD who received vedolizumab (n = 128) or ustekinumab (n = 85) as a second-line biologic therapy after they failed anti-TNF. They compared corticosteroid-free clinical remission, biochemical remission, combined steroid-free and biochemical remission, as well as safety outcomes between the two groups after 52 weeks of treatment.
After adjusting for confounders, researchers found that patients treated with ustekinumab were more likely to achieve all three remission categories (OR = 2.58, 95% CI, 1.36-4.9; OR = 2.34, 95% CI, 1.1-4.96; OR = 2.74, 95% CI, 1.23-6; respectively) compared with those who received vedolizumab.
Additionally, they found that safety outcomes, such as infections, adverse events and hospitalizations, were comparable between the two groups.
“Head-to-head studies in CD patients with prior failure to anti-TNF treatment are needed to confirm these observations,” Pierik and colleagues wrote. “Meanwhile, our results may help guiding clinical decision making after anti-TNF failure in CD.”