Safety of biological therapies in ulcerative colitis: An umbrella review of meta-analyses

Publication date: Available online 11 June 2018Source: Best Practice & Research Clinical GastroenterologyAuthor(s): Stefanos Bonovas, Katerina Pantavou, Despo Evripidou, Anan Judina Bastiampillai, Georgios K. Nikolopoulos, Laurent Peyrin-Biroulet, Silvio DaneseAbstractBiological agents have proven clinical efficacy in the treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC). Their adverse effects have also been studied in a substantial number of primary studies and meta-analyses. Given the large volume of information that has been published, the aim of this umbrella review was to effectively summarize the accumulated evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the safety of biological therapies for UC into one accessible and usable document.Pubmed and Scopus databases were systematically searched through November 2017 to identify meta-analyses of RCTs that have investigated potential harms of biological agents (adalimumab, golimumab, infliximab, and vedolizumab) in patients with UC. Ten eligible meta-analyses were included. The body of available evidence supports the safety of biologic therapies in UC. Further research is needed to clarify the risk of any infection with biologics, for elderly and high-risk groups, for longer-term effects, and for head-to-head comparisons between the different biologics.
Source: Best Practice and Research Clinical Gastroenterology - Category: Gastroenterology Source Type: research