"Adding Vedolizumab To Steroids May Boost Response, Remission In Crohn's Disease"
In patients with moderate to severe Crohn's disease who've been taking stable doses of steroids, adding vedolizumab may help induce a clinical response or remission, a recent study performed by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine shows. Patients in two clinical trials showed higher clinical remission when given vedolizumab plus corticosteroids versus a placebo. “It’s interesting that the patients all had stable doses of corticosteroids and were not fully responsive to that, but did better with the addition of vedolizumab," said Bruce E. Sands, MD, chief of the Dr. Henry D. Janowitz Division of Gastroenterology at Mount Sinai. "We can't say from this data that initiation of steroids to boost the effects of vedolizumab is the right thing to do, but we wouldn't be concerned about adding vedolizumab if patients were already on steroids. Since vedolizumab has a steroid-sparing effect, this seems to be a winning combination," added Dr. Sands.
— Bruce E. Sands, MD, Professor, Medicine, Gastroenterology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Chief, Division of Gastroenterology, Mount Sinai Health System