Anti-TNF vs standard therapy in indeterminate colitis

What is known

• The only IC-specific anti-TNF data come from a single retrospective series of 20 patients with severe, medically refractory IC in whom infliximab produced a complete response in 14 (70%). ¹

What is unknown / caveats

• There are no randomized or comparative trials of anti-TNF versus standard medical therapy (immunomodulators, steroids) specifically in indeterminate colitis, and no prospective medical treatment trials in IC have been reported at all. ^2,3
• That single series is an uncontrolled cohort, so it cannot establish whether remission rates are similar to, better than, or worse than standard therapy.

References

1. Papadakis KA, Treyzon L, Abreu MT, Fleshner PR, Targan SR, Vasiliauskas EA. Infliximab in the treatment of medically refractory indeterminate colitis. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2003;18(7):741-7. PMID: 14510748.

2. Tremaine WJ. Review article: Indeterminate colitis--definition, diagnosis and management. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2007;25(1):13-7. PMID: 17229217.

3. Burakoff R. Indeterminate colitis: clinical spectrum of disease. J Clin Gastroenterol. 2004;38(5 Suppl 1):S41-3. PMID: 15115931.

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Draft, generated by the IBDology RAG and not yet clinician-reviewed. Answers are grounded in the retrieved literature listed above; a high faithfulness score means the answer matches its sources, not that the sources are correct.