Adalimumab is good first-line anti-TNF therapy for pediatric Crohn’s disease

Adalimumab (ADA) as a first-line anti–tumor necrosis factor therapy induced and maintained clinical remission in children with Crohn’s disease, said Víctor Manuel Navas-López, MD, PhD, of the Hospital Materno Infantil, Málaga, Spain, and his associates.

Infliximab is the usual first-line anti–tumor necrosis factor treatment given to children with Crohn’s disease, with ADA used in patients who don’t respond or who develop tolerance to infliximab.

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High magnification micrograph shows an H&E strain of Crohn's disease during a colon biopsy.

Dose escalation was necessary for 26% of the 62 patients. Thirty-nine percent of patients had growth retardation.

“ADA treatment significantly improved z-score growth rate in children with Crohn’s disease, especially in those with severe growth failure at baseline,” the researchers said. Only 13% of patients reported adverse events, none of them severe.

Read more in the Anales de Pediatría (2017 Apr 14. doi: 10.1016/j.anpedi.2017.01.013).

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