Remicade for Ulcerative Colitis

Filed in archive Digestive Health on June 12, 2007

There are a number of medications available for ulcerative colitis, including prednisone and imuran. Remicade, according to PRNewswiew, has just been approved for pediatric Crohn's disease:

REMICADE is the first and only biologic therapy approved in the EU for the treatment of pediatric CD, a debilitating condition that causes inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, typically resulting in symptoms such as diarrhea, fever, abdominal pain, weight loss and in some patients, delayed development and stunted growth.

Remicade is also approved for treating ulcerative colitis. This is from the Remicade web site:

REMICADE can reduce the signs and symptoms, induce and maintain remission, promote intestinal healing, and reduce or stop the need for steroids in patients with moderate to severe UC who haven't responded well to other therapies.

And it's also approved for the treatment of Crohn's in adults:

REMICADE has been proven to reduce the signs and symptoms of Crohn's disease and induce and maintain remission in patients with moderate to severe Crohn's whose disease is still active despite treatment with other therapies.

Sounds promising. According to the Health Blog:

Findings presented at Digestive Disease Week 2007 (DDW), from long-term extensions of the ACT trials (Active Ulcerative Colitis 1 & 2) show that subjects with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis (UC) who had responded to REMICADE? (infliximab) in the blinded phase of the trials maintained improvement in their clinical symptoms for up to two years.

My doctor has never mentioned Remicade. I wonder why. She wants me to have surgery in the fall, but I'd rather not if the colitis can be controlled with Remicade.