Outcomes of immunosuppressors and biologic drugs in inflammatory bowel diseases: a real life experience

Abstract

Treatments and therapeutic approaches in IBD are constantly evolving. The newly emerged biologic treatments are one such evolving approach, with much ongoing studies to determine the outcomes safety and side effects, in comparison to the older immunosuppressive treatment regimens. In this research, a retrospective analysis was conducted on 112 patients with IBD, retrieved from a single center in Lebanon, in aim of evaluating the outcomes of biologic, immunosuppressive, or combination of both drug classes, over one another, in the treatment of patients with IBD in the real life experience. Patient treated with Azathioprine were 58%, patients receiving Infliximab were 13%, 20% received Adalimumab, and only 8.9% of patients received a combination of Azathioprine and Adalimumab. Overall Response rates to treatment were high (92.9%), while non-responders were 7.1%. As for flare up rates, it was observed that 32.1% of patients had flare ups during treatment, while the majority (61.6%) did not. Less flare up and side effect rates were noted among patients treated with biologic treatment. In addition, the results showed that biologic drugs are superior in achieving a higher response rate compared to immunosuppressive treatment. This result was significant to the 95% confidence interval.