Ustekinumab provides progressive intestinal ultrasound (IUS) and transmural remission in Crohn’s Disease (CD) patients, says a recent study. This study was published in the journal, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

This study international, multicenter, phase 3b, interventional, randomized controlled trial included 77 participants to compare treat-to-target and standard-of-care treatment strategies in ustekinumab treated – CD patients. The main endpoints of the study were IUS response, transmural remission, bowel wall thickness (BWT), blood flow, bowel wall stratification, and inflammatory fat. IUS response was determined 4 weeks post-treatment, with progressive improvement through week 48.

At week 48, the IUS response and transmural remission rates were 46.3 and 24.1%, respectively. Fair reliability was observed between week 4 IUS response and week 48 overall endoscopic response and fecal calprotectin/complete biomarker outcomes.

Thus, CD patients treated with ustekinumab showed progressive IUS response and transmural remission. 

According to the recent study, ivarmacitinib is safe and effective in moderate to severe active ulcerative colitis. This study was published in the journal, Gastroenterology.

 The study was a randomized double blinded clinical study which included 164 patients with ulcerative colitis, who were randomized to receive oral ivarmacitinib 8 mg once daily (QD), 4 mg twice daily (BID), or 4 mg QD, or placebo for 8 weeks.

At the end of week 8, treatment response rate was higher in the 8mg QD (46.3%), 4mg BID (46.3%) and 4mg QD (43.9%) treatment group when compared with placebo group (26.8%). Clinical remission rate was improved in the three treatment groups 22.0%, 24.4%, and 24.4% respectively when compared with placebo group (4.9%).

Based on the results of the study, it is concluded that, ivarmacitinib is safe and effective providing new promising treatment in moderate to severe ulcerative colitis

A recent study suggested that hypertonic glucose solution (HGS) prevents dizziness after gastrointestinal endoscopy. This study was published in Journal of Combinatorial Chemistry & High Throughput Screening.

A controlled double-blind, randomized study was conducted which included around 840 patients divided in two groups: Group A and Group B. The patients in Group A were administered saline (0.9%; 20 mL); and Group B with HGS (50%; 20 mL) before gastrointestinal endoscopy. The scores and incidence of dizziness were assessed.

The dizziness scores were higher in Group A than in Group B (1.92 ± 0.08 vs. 0.92 ± 0.06), and the incidence of mild dizziness and moderate-to-severe dizziness was significantly lower in group B than in group A (40.10% vs. 51.78% and 3.10% vs. 19.72%, respectively).

Thus, it can be suggested that pretreatment with HGS prevents dizziness after gastrointestinal endoscopy under general anesthesia.

According to a new study, adjuvant S-1 showed a significant improvement in overall survival for resected biliary tract cancer. This study was published in the journal, Lancet.

An open-label, multicentre, randomized phase 3 trial was conducted in 38 hospitals. 440 resected biliary tract cancer patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to the observation group or the S-1 group who received either 40 mg, 50 mg, or 60 mg according to body surface area, which was orally administered twice daily for 4 weeks, followed by 2 weeks of rest for four cycles.

The 3-year overall survival was 77.1% in the S-1 group as opposed to 67.6% in the observation group. Also, the 3-year relapse-free survival was 62.4% in the S-1 group compared to 50.9% in the observation group (statistically not significant). 

This study showed that adjuvant S-1 improved overall survival of patients with resected biliary tract cancer.