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VIDEO: ‘Explosion’ of IBD therapies has gastroenterologists evaluating how to best sequence treatments
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CHICAGO — In this exclusive video from the 2019 Interdisciplinary Autoimmune Summit, David T. Rubin, MD, section chief of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, and co-director of the Digestive Diseases Center at the University of Chicago Medicine, discusses some of the existing and emerging treatment targets in inflammatory bowel disease, and the challenges gastroenterologists face when treating the disease.
“We discussed how there is a global increase in the incidence and prevalence of Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis and a lot of new therapies available, but we still aren’t achieving all our goals for all our patients,” Rubin told Healio Gastroenterology and Liver Disease.
Rubin also highlighted new treatment goals, which include focusing on objective disease control in addition to improving symptoms.
“We have really adopted that strategy, especially for our higher risk patients ... who are at higher risk for needing steroids, or being hospitalized, or having surgeries or repeat surgeries and the use of endoscopic approaches and serum levels and stool tests to make sure that in addition to feeling better, our patients have better control of their disease,” he said in an interview.
Additionally, Rubin noted that although there has been a literal explosion in available treatment options, the field is still evaluating how to use certain treatments in varying sequences, and when to use therapies in different types of patients.
“I concluded by pointing out that there are some ways to make our existing therapies work better,” Rubin said. “While we are waiting to cure these conditions, and find other treatment options for our patients, we should be using our current therapies earlier, making sure we are optimizing them and driving those high-risk patients toward more control by adjusting dosing, [and] by combining therapies in some situations and of course keeping those patients in regular follow-up so we know how they are doing.”
Disclosure: Rubin reports serving as a consultant for, and/or receiving grant support from AbbVie, Abgenomics, Allergan, Arena Pharmaceuticals, Biomica, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Dizal Pharmaceuticals, Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Genentech, Janssen, Lilly, Mahana Therapeutics, Medtronic, Merck, Napo Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, Prometheus Laboratories, Shire, Takeda and Target PharmaSolutions.