The Daily Dose from Patient Care Online: October 11, 2022

Everyday Patient Care Online combs the medical research and reviews studies the editors know will be of greatest interest to primary care.

There is a lot of daily news to digest.

With this in mind, Patient Care brings you The Daily Dose, a concise summary of one report from the website you may have missed.

On October 10, 2022, that study was about the efficacy and safety of ustekinumab (Stelara^®; Janssen Pharmaceuticals) for the treatment of moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis (UC).

Results

Results showed that among 348 patients who achieved clinical response to treatment with intravenous ustekinumab during induction, 64.9% were in symptomatic remission after 44 weeks. After 200 weeks, the 4-year mark, 55.2% were in symptomatic remission. The majority of patients (96.4%) were not receiving corticosteroids. Among the 174 patients receiving ustekinumab as their first biologic for UC (biologic-naïve), 71.8% were in symptomatic remission after 44 weeks of maintenance and 67.2% were in remission at week 200.

Clinical implications

“Importantly, the vast majority of patients who achieved remission in the study were able to eliminate the use of steroids, which can cause significant side effects and are not a long-term treatment solution for the disease," said lead author Waqqas Afif, MD, associate professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Experimental Medicine and Division of Gastroenterology at McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, Canada, in a press release.