P491 De-escalation of dose-intensified anti-TNF therapy in IBD patients in sustained deep remission

I. Chu1,2, R. Little1,2, M. Sparrow1,2, M. Ward1,2

1Gastroenterology, Alfred Hospital- Alfred Health, Melbourne, Australia, 2Faculty of Medicine Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

Background

Data on outcomes following de-intensification of anti-TNF therapy in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are limited and concerns about relapse limit the willingness to de-escalate. This study aimed to evaluate rates of successful de-escalation at 12 months and to determine factors that may predict success.

Methods

Single-centre retrospective study of IBD patients on dose-intensified infliximab (IFX) or adalimumab (ADA) for secondary loss of response. De-escalation was considered in patients achieving sustained biomarker normalisation. Patients were followed for 12 months post-de-escalation and classified as ‘successes’ if remaining on reduced dose anti-TNF or ‘failures’ if requiring re-escalation, steroids, surgery or enrolment into a clinical trial. Patient demographics, disease characteristics, biomarkers (faecal calprotectin (FCP), C-reactive protein (CRP), albumin), anti-TNF drug levels and thiopurine metabolites were collected.

Results

Of 24 patients (20 CD, 4 UC), 18 received IFX and 6 received ADA. Patients on IFX were de-escalated to 5 mg/kg 8-weekly (89%) or 10 mg/kg 6-weekly (11%), while patients on ADA were de-escalated to 40 mg fortnightly (83%) or 40 mg weekly (17%). Fifteen out of 24 (63%) patients were successes 12 months post-de-escalation. Of the 9 failures, median time to failure was 6 months (IQR 4.6–9.9) – 6/9 failures required re-escalation of anti-TNF therapy and 3/9 entered a clinical trial. Re-escalation successfully recaptured response in 6/6 (100%) patients after a median of 1.4 years follow-up (IQR 1.1–2.3). Albumin at de-escalation was higher in the success group compared with failures (38 g/l vs. 36 g/l, p = 0.025). There was no significant difference in CRP, FCP, anti-TNF drug level or 6-TGN level between the two groups. There was no difference in IFX levels between successes and failures at the time of de-escalation (5.5 vs. 7.5, p = 0.524) as well as 6 months (3.1 vs. 5.1, p = 0.628) and 12 months (3.2 vs. 6.1, p = 0.457) post de-escalation. There were insufficient data for ADA drug level comparison post-de-escalation.

Conclusion

Nearly two-thirds of patients remained on reduced anti-TNF dosing at 12 months post-de-escalation. All patients who failed de-escalation were recaptured after dose re-escalation. Other than albumin, no baseline predictors for the success or failure of de-escalation could be identified, although cohort size is small, follow-up was short and the majority of patients achieved sustained biomarker normalisation prior to de-escalation. De-escalation may be considered in patients on intensified anti-TNF therapy in sustained deep remission.