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  • Year in Review
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IBD in 2023

Upgrading therapeutic ambitions and treatment outcomes

Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology volume 21, pages 84–85 (2024)Cite this article

Subjects

Important studies published in 2023 outlined new agents and strategies for the management of inflammatory bowel disease. Therapeutic ambitions for the management of inflammatory bowel disease were raised by the success of combinations of biologic agents in ulcerative colitis and early surgical resection in Crohn’s disease.

Key advances

  • A proof-of-concept phase II clinical trial showed that combination therapy with guselkumab plus golimumab might be more effective than either agent alone in patients with moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis4.

  • Three placebo-controlled phase III clinical trials demonstrated the efficacy and safety of upadacitinib as induction and maintenance therapy in patients with moderate-to-severe Crohn’s disease6. These trials led to the approval of upadacitinib in 2023.

  • A large retrospective national database study from Denmark reported that ileocaecal resection reduced the rate of a composite outcome by 33% versus anti-tumour necrosis factor treatment in patients with newly diagnosed ileal or ileocaecal Crohn’s disease8. Prospective studies of this approach are warranted.

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Fig. 1: Findings that represent an upgrade in ambitions and strategies for inflammatory bowel disease management in 2023.

References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil

    Paulo Gustavo Kotze

  2. University Hospitals, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Severine Vermeire

Authors
  1. Paulo Gustavo Kotze
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  2. Severine Vermeire
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paulo Gustavo Kotze.

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Competing interests

P.G.K. declares that he has received scientific grants from Pfizer and Takeda, and consulted for Abbvie, Janssen, Pfizer and Takeda. S.V. declares that she has received grant support from AbbVie, Janssen, Merck Sharpe & Dohme, Pfizer and Takeda; speaker fees from AbbVie, Dr Falk Pharma, Ferring, Hospira, Merck Sharpe & Dohme, Pfizer, Takeda and Tillots; and has consulted for AbbVie, Arena, Amgen, Celgene, Eli Lilly, Ferring, Galapagos, Genentech/Roche, Gilead, Hospira, Janssen, Merck Sharpe & Dohme, Mundipharma, Pfizer, ProDigest, Progenity, Second Genome, Shire and Takeda.

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Kotze, P.G., Vermeire, S. Upgrading therapeutic ambitions and treatment outcomes. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 21, 84–85 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-023-00885-x

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