Analysis of the factors related to anti-TNF alpha response in the treatment of Crohn's Disease

Crohn's disease (CD) presents a great challenge regarding treatment, considering that the best drugs available have very limited effectiveness.OBJECTIVE: To analyze the characteristics between groups of patients with Crohn's disease who had response versus had not/lost response to treatment with anti-TNF.METHOD: Retrospective study of patients with CD treated with IFX or ADA.RESULTS: We studied 72 patients with mean age of 35 years; 45 of them were treated with infliximab and 27 with adalimumab; 90% of women were respondents, compared to 10% who were not respondents/lost response, and 60% of men were respondents versus 40% who were not respondents/lost response; there was no difference between IFX and ADA with respect to response; 48 patients were 40 years old. Of those who had 40 years, 16 were respondents versus 8 who were not respondents/lost response; patients under 2 years of diagnosis had a better response than those with two to five years of symptoms, and these latter exhibited a better response than those with more than five years of diagnosis.CONCLUSION: The observed characteristics of response to treatment of CD with anti-TNF were: association to azathioprine, female gender, age < 40 years and less than two years of diagnosis