“However, there seem to be subgroups of patients who are more likely to maintain remission; the challenge for future research in this area will be to accurately identify who these patients are. Markers of disease activity, poor prognostic factors, and complicated or relapsing disease course were associated with more frequent relapse in the studies included in this review, but most of them are retrospective studies or post-hoc analysis of clinical trials,” they said.
Their analysis found that studies in pregnant women with IBD suggest that a short drug holiday is not associated with high rates of relapse or loss of response upon restarting drug therapy.
Do the findings call for any change in current clinical practice?
“Our view is that, based on the current evidence, discontinuation of therapy in patients with IBD needs to be a personalized decision based on a number of factors, including patients preference. This review highlights the need for prospective and controlled trials in this area, some of which are already in progress such as the Biocycle project (http://biocycle-project.eu/), ” Drs. Boyapati and Torres said.
The authors reported no disclosures.
