Scientists unveil drug that thwarts post-operative Crohn's disease recurrence

Washington, Feb 2 (ANI): A new study has found that a drug called Infliximab can effectively prevent the recurrence of post-operative Crohn's disease.

Crohn's disease is an inflammatory disease of the digestive system, which may affect any part of the gastrointestinal tract from mouth to anus.

This is the first time that randomised controlled trials have been conducted to evaluate infliximab's efficacy in postoperative Crohn's disease prevention.

"Our study provides strong evidence that infliximab is effective at preventing endoscopic, clinical and histological postoperative recurrence of Crohn's disease, and provides a rationale for aggressive postoperative chemoprevention with biologic therapy," said Dr. Miguel Regueiro, of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

"We are encouraged by our findings, which warrant future study of the duration of post-operative infliximab maintenance and appropriate endoscopic follow up," Regueiro added.

The autoimmune disease commonly recurs after intestinal resection.

During the study, the researchers randomly assigned 24 Crohn's disease patients who had undergone intestinal resection to receive intravenous infliximab (5 mg/kg), within four weeks of surgery and continued for one year, or placebo.

They found that, at one year, the rate of endoscopic recurrence was significantly lower in the infliximab group with 9.1 percent compared to the placebo group with 84.6 percent.

Moreover, the histological recurrence rate at one year was significantly lower in the infliximab group with 27.3 percent compared to the placebo group 84.6 percent.

The study appears in the journal Gastroenterology. (ANI)