Reduced mortality was seen in Crohn’s patients with comorbidities who have been treated with anti-TNF’s, but primarily compared to those treated with prolonged steroids. There was a trend to positive outcomes for UC patients, but it did not meet statistical significance.
Among 1,879 Crohn’s patients initiating anti-TNF therapy, there was a significantly lower risk of death (OR 0.78, 95% CI 0.65-0.93) compared with risks for 7,694 patients treated with long-term steroids, according to James D. Lewis, MD, director of the Gastroenterology and Hepatology Clinical Research Program at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. “The reduced mortality rates among patients with Crohn’s disease was potentially a consequence of excess cardiovascular-related mortality and hip fractures and was largely limited to patients with multiple or serious comorbid conditions,” he stated.
See the review article by Nancy Walsh on MedPage Today here.
See the original article in the American Journal of Gastroenterology here.
Interesting data on the benefits of anti-TNF therapy. The major downside of the study was the comparison to steroids, which are not a good maintenance therapy at all.