Klin Farmakol Farm. 2008;22(2):58-63

Biological therapy In gastroenterology

Vladimír Zbořil

Interní hepatogastroenterologická klinika FN a LF MU Brno

In gastroenterology, biological therapy represents a significant component in the standard treatment for both idiopathic inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer and is also employed following liver transplantation. Currently, the management of idiopathic inflammatory bowel diseases involves the use of infliximab or adalimumab to treat Crohn‘ s disease and the use of infliximab alone to treat ulcerative colitis. Therapy is restricted to biological therapy centres which guarantee correct indication and implementation of treatment. Current indications make possible the use of biological therapy in idiopathic inflammatory bowel diseases once conventional treatment options using corticosteroids and/or immunosuppressives have failed. The combination of bevacizumab and cetuximab with conventional chemotherapy the effect of which is thus potentiated has been shown beneficial in the treatment of colorectal cancer. The use of biological therapy in hepatology is rather an issue for transplantology which is also responsible for its indications.

Keywords: Key words: tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), idiopathic inflammatory bowel disease (IIBD), colorectal cancer (CRCa).

Published: January 1, 2009  Show citation