Transcript: Michael Chiorean, MD, on JAK and IL-12/23 Inhibitors in IBD Management

Dr. Michael V. Chiorean:  My name is Michael Chiorean. I'm a gastroenterologist at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle. I hope you enjoyed my presentation, and you found it instructive and informative. The drugs that we reviewed today, tofacitinib and ustekinumab, are members of rapidly expanding classes of therapeutics for treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.

From clinical trial data, we learned how well and how fast these drugs work. We set some expectations onto how these drugs are likely to perform in our clinical practice when we talk about patients with ulcerative colitis.

Because these are newer drugs, I spent more time discussing the safety profile of tofacitinib and ustekinumab, understanding that this knowledge‑base is constantly expanding and evolving. However, this is the type of information that you want to have in your notebook when you discuss with your patients as well as your healthcare team.

Last but not least, I suggested an individualized approach to a treatment algorithm that incorporates these medications in the treatment of patients with moderate to severely active ulcerative colitis. We are living in an era of unprecedented development and expansion of therapeutic options for patients with inflammatory bowel disease, which should be great news for our patients.

However, it is likely that treatment decisions, algorithms, and guidelines are going to become increasingly complex. This is the reason to stay up‑to‑date with the information that is becoming available in this field. One good way to do this is to stay up‑to‑date with the Advances in IBD series.

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