Improved clinical outcomes with early anti-tumour necrosis factor alpha therapy in children with newly diagnosed Crohn's disease: real world data from the international prospective PIBD-SETQuality inception cohort study

Renz C. W. Klomberg, Hella C. van der Wal, Martine A. Aardoom, Polychronis Kemos, Dimitris Rizopoulos, Frank M. Ruemmele, Mohammed Charrout, J. C. Escher, Nicholas M. Croft, Lissy de Ridder (Lead / Corresponding author),

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Abstract

Background and Aims: Treatment guidelines for paediatric Crohn's disease (CD) suggest early use of anti-tumour necrosis factor alpha (anti-TNF) in high-risk individuals. The aim is to evaluate the effect of early anti-TNF in a real-world cohort.

Methods: Children with newly-diagnosed CD were prospectively recruited at 28 participating sites of the international observational PIBD-SETQuality study. Outcomes were compared at 3 months, 1 and 2 years between patients receiving early anti-TNF (<90 days after diagnosis) and those not receiving early anti-TNF. Outcomes included sustained steroid-free remission (SSFR) without treatment intensification (specified as SSFR*) and sustained steroid-free mild/inactive disease without treatment intensification (specified as SSFMI*). Penalised logistic regression model-based standardisation was applied to estimate the relative risks (RR) of early therapy on outcomes. RRs were estimated for high-risk and low-risk patients based on presence of predictors of poor outcome (POPOs) and disease activity at diagnosis.

Results: In total, 331 children (median age 13.9 years [IQR 12.2 - 15.3]) were enrolled, with 135 (41%) receiving early anti-TNF. At 1 year, patients on early anti-TNF had higher rates of SSFR* (30% vs. 14%, p<0.001) and SSFMI* (69% vs. 33%, p<0.001), with RRs of 2.95 (95%CI 1.63-5.36) and 4.67 (95%CI 2.46-8.87) respectively. At 1 year, the RRs for SSFMI* were higher, and statistically significant in high-risk patients, i.e. those with moderate/severe disease compared to mild/inactive disease at diagnosis (5.50 [95%CI 2.51-12.05]) vs. 2.91 [95%CI 0.92-9.11]), and those with any POPO compared to no POPO (5.05 [95%CI 2.45-10.43] vs. 3.41 [95%CI 0.54-21.7]).

Conclusion: In this cohort of children with newly-diagnosed CD, early anti-TNF demonstrated superior effectiveness in high-risk patients.

Original languageEnglish
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Crohn's and Colitis
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 27 Nov 2023

Keywords

  • Biologics
  • inflammatory bowel disease
  • risk-stratification
  • early treatment

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