Mayo Clinic News

A new study led by Mayo Clinic researchers has found that ulcerative colitis patients had a 41 percent reduction in colectomy after a year when treated with infliximab, according to a study published in the October 2009 issue of Gastroenterology.

Ulcerative colitis , an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that causes chronic inflammation of the colon, is characterized by abdominal pain and diarrhea. Like Crohn’s disease , another common IBD, ulcerative colitis can be debilitating and often lead to colectomy or surgical removal of the colon.

In this multi-center, international study, 728 patients received placebo or infliximab (5 or 10 mg/kg) for 46 weeks and were monitored for hospitalization or surgical outcomes. Eighty-seven percent (630 of 728) had complete follow-up for the endpoint of whether or not they had colectomy, while the remaining 13 percent (98 of 728) of patients had follow-up for less then a year, with a median follow-up of 6.2 months in these patients. The research showed that treatment with infliximab at 0, 2 and 6 and then every 8 weeks reduced the incidence of colectomy through 54 weeks by 41 percent in outpatients with moderately-to-severe active ulcerative colitis.

“One of the most feared outcomes for ulcerative colitis patients is surgical removal of the colon,” says William Sandborn, M.D ., a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist and lead author of the study. “Our research hopes to provide other treatment solutions for patients beyond surgery.”

Note to Journalists: You may download video of Dr. Sandborn discussing the study findings here (.wmv) 

Here are three audio cuts with Dr. Sandborn:  

What is Ulcerative Colitis (MP3)

Study Findings (MP3)

Bottom Line Message  (MP3)

The video also has been uploaded as “private” on YouTube, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bls4jvaqpBg and has been embedded below. The link will become live and available to the public when the embargo lifts, in case you wish to embed the video in your online stories.

Besides Dr. Sandborn, the research team included: Kevin Horgan, Jiandong Lu, Jewel Johanns, Centocor Research & Development, Inc., Malvern, Penn.; Bruce E. Sands, Gastrointestinal Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.; Paul Rutgeerts, Department of Gastroenterology, University Hospital Gasthuisberg, Leuven, Belgium; Stephen B. Hanauer, Division of Gastroenterology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.; Daniel Rachmilewitz, Division of Medicine, Shaare Zedak Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel; Jean Frédéric Colombel, Department of Hepatogastroenterology, Hopital Claude Huriez and Centre d’Investigation Clinique, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Lille, Lille, France; Walter Reinisch, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Univ Klinik Innere Medizin IV, AKH Wien, Vienna, Austria; Willem J.S. de Villier, Division of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition, Department of Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky; Brian G. Feagan, Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; Gary R. Lichtenstein, Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Allan Olson, R. W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development, San Diego, California; Daniel Present, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, New York