VIDEO: Stelara safe in treatment of older patients with IBD
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In a video exclusive, Subrata Ghosh, MD, of the University College Cork, reported older patients with inflammatory bowel disease treated with Stelara did not experience increased rates of serious adverse events compared with placebo.
“In clinical practice, prescribing older IBD patients is a challenge; about 25% to 35% of our IBD population now are over the age of 60 years and this proportion is likely to increase significantly over the next couple of decades,” Ghosh said. “It has been shown that adverse events of treatment, such as serious infection and cancer, are generally increased in older patients.”
While the overall safety profile of Stelara (ustekinumab, Janssen) was reassuring, Ghosh said, the researchers wanted to find out if there were any specific concerns.
Among 13 phase 2 or phase 3 studies, researchers found similar rates of infection and serious infection between placebo-treated groups and ustekinumab-treated groups. Further, Ghosh noted no increased rates of cancer.
“This provides the reassurance that we practicing clinicians need in order to treat these patients, a very important group of patients, in clinical practice,” Ghosh concluded. “This may avoid the widely reported, poorer outcomes in older patients that we know is a clinical problem.”
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Ghosh S, et al. Abstract OP198. Presented at: UEG Week; Oct. 3-5, 2021 (virtual meeting).
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