title: Efficacy and safety of adalimumab for the treatment of Crohn's disease in adults.
abstract: Biologic agents offer potentially disease-modifying benefits that address long-term symptom control. Adalimumab was developed to be a fully human monoclonal antibody and an advancement over previously developed biologics. Adalimumab induces and maintains long-term clinical response and remission in patients with moderate-to-severe Crohn's disease (CD) who had failed to respond to conventional therapy. In addition, adalimumab is effective in patients who cannot tolerate or who have lost response to infliximab therapy. Clinical trials demonstrate that adalimumab reduces the risk of CD-related hospitalization, maintains rapid complete fistula closure and is steroid-sparing, especially when administered early in the course of the disease. Adalimumab is generally well-tolerated by patients with moderate-to-severe CD. Opportunistic infections occurred in approximately 2% of adalimumab-treated patients and malignant neoplasms occurred in approximately 1% of patients, with no differences compared with placebo during the randomized, placebo-controlled portions of the adalimumab trials. This article reviews the efficacy and safety of adalimumab in the treatment of adult patients with CD and discusses the role of adalimumab in the current and future management of CD.
authors.affiliation: Hôpital Huriez, Service d'Hépatogastroentérologie, CHU Lille, Rue Polonovski, 59037 Lille, Cedex, France. jfcolombel@chru-lille.fr
authors.forename: Jean-Frédéric
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Colombel
mesh_terms: D000068879:Adalimumab; D000328:Adult; D000893:Anti-Inflammatory Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects; D061067:Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized; D003424:Crohn Disease / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D000893:Anti-Inflammatory Agents; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D061067:Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized; D000068879:Adalimumab