*EMBARGOED All research presented at the 2020 ACG Annual Scientific Meeting and Postgraduate Course is strictly embargoed until Monday, October 26, 2020, at 8:00 am EDT.

Yinghong Wang, MD, PhD
Yinghong Wang, MD, PhD

Oral 2 Comparative Study of Vedolizumab and Infliximab Treatment in Patients With Immune-Mediated Diarrhea and Colitis

Author Insight from Yinghong Wang, MD, PhD, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

What’s new here and important for clinicians?

  • Immune-mediated diarrhea and colitis has been increasingly recognized in the era of immunotherapy for multiple cancers.
  • Infliximab and vedolizumab have been frequently used for severe and refractory colitis cases.
  • The efficacy and safety of infliximab and vedolizumab is still lacking.
  • Our large sample size study for the first time showed that compared to infliximab, vedolizumab therapy is associated with equal efficacy in achieving clinical remission for IMDC, and also significantly shorter disease course of IMDC, less steroid exposure, and lower IMDC recurrence.
  • Vedolizumab has better safety profile in terms of less cancer progression and better long term overall survival compared to infliximab.

    What do patients need to know?

  • There are two different medical treatment options (infliximab and vedolizumab) required for severe and refractory immune-mediated diarrhea and colitis that have been used frequently on top of steroid.
  • They provide similar treatment outcome (87-89%) for immune-mediated diarrhea and colitis with clinical symptom resolution.
  • In addition, compared to infliximab, vedolizumab is associated with shorter disease course of immune-mediated diarrhea and colitis, less steroid exposure, and lower IMDC recurrence.
  • Vedolizumab also has much better safety profile in terms of less cancer progression and better long term survival compared to infliximab.
  • Future treatment for immune-mediated diarrhea and colitis should be judiciously scrutinized by treating physicians to maximize the benefit for patients.

    Read the Abstract

    Author Contact
    Yinghong Wang, MD, PhD, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
    ywang59 [at] mdanderson [dot] org

    Media Interview Requests
    To arrange an interview with any ACG experts or abstract authors, please contact Becky Abel of ACG via email at mediaonly [at] gi [dot] org or by phone at 301-263-9000.