Long-term outcome of adalimumab therapy for ulcerative colitis with intolerance or lost response to infliximab: A single-centre experience

Background: Adalimumab may be effective in inducing remission in patients with mild-to-moderate ulcerative colitis who had secondary failure to infliximab. Aim: To evaluate long-term efficacy and safety of adalimumab in patients with ulcerative colitis who previously responded to infliximab, and then lost response or became intolerant. Methods: We report our single-centre experience in 13 patients. The patients received a loading dose of 160 mg of adalimumab subcutaneously in week 0, followed by 80 mg at week 2 and then 40 mg every other week starting at week 4. The primary efficacy measure was the proportion of patients on adalimumab therapy during the study. Results: Median duration of follow-up was 42 weeks (range, 10-100). The mean number of adalimumab infusions was 21 (range, 5-50). The probability of maintaining adalimumab was 92.3%, 84.6%, 60.6% and 32.5% at 1, 3, 6 and 23 months respectively. Six of 13 patients (46.2%) underwent colectomy during the study. No serious toxicities occurred in the study. Conclusion: Adalimumab is well-tolerated and may be effective in maintaining clinical remission in a subgroup of patients with ulcerative colitis and lost response or intolerance to infliximab, potentially avoiding colectomy in about half of the patients. © 2008 The Authors.