Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Journal Club
  • Published:

IBD

Combination therapies: the next major frontier in IBD management

Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology volume 20, page 761 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Treatment strategies that combine therapies have revolutionized management across multiple areas of medicine. In inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), there have been a welcome number of new medication options for patients, but a ‘therapeutic ceiling’ has emerged in which no single treatment seems to be effective in any more than 20–30% of patients. Despite there being more options than ever before, one of the major worries about combining advanced therapies in IBD has been the potential risk of adverse effects from adopting such an approach.

The seminal study in the investigation of combination therapies in IBD was the SONIC trial, which was published in 2010. Colombel and colleagues performed a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in patients with Crohn’s disease and showed that combination treatment with infliximab and azathioprine was more effective than using either alone. Moreover, contrary to popular belief at the time, the safest treatment strategy was the combination treatment arm.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

Original article

  • Colombel, J. F. et al. Infliximab, azathioprine, or combination therapy for Crohn’s disease. N. Engl. J. Med. 362, 1383–1395 (2010)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Related article

  • Feagan, B. G. et al. Guselkumab plus golimumab combination therapy versus guselkumab or golimumab monotherapy in patients with ulcerative colitis (VEGA): a randomised, double-blind, controlled, phase 2, proof-of-concept trial. Lancet Gastroenterol. Hepatol. 8, 307–320 (2023)

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Gastroenterology, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK

    Nurulamin M. Noor

  2. Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, UK

    Nurulamin M. Noor

  3. Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit, University College London, London, UK

    Nurulamin M. Noor

Authors
  1. Nurulamin M. Noor
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nurulamin M. Noor.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Noor, N.M. Combination therapies: the next major frontier in IBD management. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 20, 761 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-023-00839-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-023-00839-3

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing