Advanced therapies: Un update on medical treamtent options in Crohn`s disease

Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that can manifest throughout the entire gastrointestinal tract from mouth to anus. It is characterized by so-called "skip lesions", which are affected sections of the intestine interspersed with healthy sections. In recent years, there have been significant progress and an expansion of medical treatment options for Crohn's disease with the approval of many new substances. Treatment goals have also become more ambitious, going beyond clinical symptom control to mucosal healing and, according to the STRIDE II criteria, to transmural healing in Crohn's disease in the future. If these goals are achieved, patients with Crohn's disease have a good chance of remaining in long-term remission and can expect fewer complications such as disease progression, hospitalization, anemia, fistulas, strictures, or surgeries. Despite having access to a variety of different substance classes in the treatment of Crohn's disease, in everyday practice we can see that these medications are not effective for some patients in the long-term. There is a so-called "therapeutic ceiling" in IBD, meaning that only about 40-50% of those affected are successfully managed long-term with one substance. Therefore, new medical treatment options for Crohn's disease always represent an opportunity to treat patients even better.