Could Stopping Anti-TNF Treatment Worsen IBD?

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) who stop or change their anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) treatment are 3 times more likely to experience a disease flare-up after 1 year, according to new research.

Researchers were initially unsure of these effects due to a lack of previous research conducted on the subject. So, to learn more about the real-world effects of changing patients’ anti-TNF medication, researchers collected data via an online chart review of IBD patients in the Physicians’ Consulting Network between 2011 and 2014.

They examined 131 patients who had been using anti-TNF medication successfully for 6 months but had to stop or change treatment because they couldn’t afford it anymore. The majority of patients were using the common drugs infliximab and adalimumab.

After 1 year of stopping treatment, 44% of patients had partially controlled disease and 8% had uncontrolled disease, whereas only 14% of those who didn’t stop treatment experienced partially controlled disease, and no one experienced uncontrolled disease.

Researchers also found that 31% of patients who stopped treatment made hospital visits over the 3-year period—only 11% of those who continued treatment made visits.

—Amanda Balbi

Reference:

Wolf DC, Skup M, Yang H, et al. Clinical outcomes associated with non-medical switching or discontinuation of anti-TNF inhibitors among patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Paper presented at: Advances in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases 2015; December 10-12, 2015; Orlando, FL. [Abstract P20]