Head-to-head comparison studies evaluating the effectiveness and tolerability of anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) drugs in inflammatory bowel disease patients are lacking.
To compare the effectiveness and tolerability of anti-TNF-α drugs used in clinical practice in a cohort of patients with moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis (UC).
Retrospectively, 122 UC patients treated with infliximab (IFX) originator and biosimilar, adalimumab (ADA), and golimumab (GOL) were included. We performed an ITT analysis to evaluate clinical response and remission, steroid-free clinical remission, and endoscopy response according to the different time points of the follow-up. Baseline and post induction predictor factors of these outcomes were evaluated using multivariate logistic regression models. Moreover, a propensity score-based weighting analysis was performed. Data were analyzed using R and STATA11 software.
The overall clinical response was 77% after induction, 81.4% at 30 weeks, and 76.9% at 52 weeks, while the steroid-free clinical remission was 39.7, 46, and 54.6%, respectively. After induction, a higher rate of treatment failure was observed in the GOL group. At the end of follow-up, lower rates of steroid-free clinical remission and clinical response were obtained by GOL. At week 52, endoscopic response was achieved by 46.5% of the population.
Among the different anti-TNF treatments, moderate-to-severe UC seems to respond better to IFX and ADA, whereas GOL seems to be less effective, despite a similar good safety profile.