Review Article

New Paradigms to Help Decisions in Treatment Choice: Head to Head Trial of Biological Therapies in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

Author(s): Laura Loy*, Gionata Fiorino, Giulia Roda, Mariangela Allocca, Federica Furfaro, Alessandra Zilli, Daniela Gilardi, Simona Radice, Laurent Peyrin-Biroulet and Silvio Danese

Volume 22, Issue 4, 2021

Published on: 11 December, 2020

Page: [370 - 378] Pages: 9

DOI: 10.2174/1389450121666201211162527

Price: $65

Abstract

The increasing armamentarium of drugs for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) requires a direct comparison of different therapeutic options in order to guide physicians in the choice of the most appropriate treatment for their patients. Head-to-head trials, considered the gold standard in comparative research in IBD, allow to compare different therapies in the same population and setting, but also to evaluate different treatment strategies. Although head-to-head trials including biologics and immunosuppressive therapy in IBD have been performed decades ago, the interest in these direct comparisons is growing since the publication of the first randomized controlled trial directly comparing biologic agents with different molecular targets. This review provides an overview of the past and current IBD head-to-head trials, considering their respective strengths and limitations in a real-life setting.

Keywords: Inflammatory bowel disease, head-to-head trial, randomized clinical trial, direct comparison, treatment strategy.

Graphical Abstract
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