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Updated: Sep 30, 2025

Chinese Herbal Retention Enema for the Treatment of Ulcerative Colitis
Published on: May 16, 2025
Early Symptomatic Improvement After Ustekinumab Therapy in Patients With Ulcerative Colitis: 16-Week Data From the
Silvio Danese1, Bruce E Sands2, Maria T Abreu3
1Gastroenterology and Endoscopy, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS) Ospedale San Raffaele and Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan, Italy.
Background & Aims:
Rapid symptomatic relief is an important treatment goal for patients with ulcerative colitis (UC). We aimed to characterize early response with ustekinumab in patients with moderate-to-severe UC during the initial 16 weeks of treatment.
Methods:
We performed a post hoc analysis of data from A Study to Evaluate the Safety and Efficacy of Ustekinumab Induction and Maintenance Therapy in Participants With Moderately to Severely Active Ulcerative Colitis trial. Patients (N = 961) were randomized (1:1:1) to receive intravenous 130 mg ustekinumab, approximately 6 mg/kg ustekinumab, or placebo at week 0. Symptomatic remission, absolute stool number, Mayo stool frequency and rectal bleeding subscores, partial Mayo score, C-reactive protein, and fecal calprotectin were assessed in the overall population and for patients in the biologic-naïve or prior biologic failure subgroups.
Results:
A significantly greater percentage of patients in the 130-mg ustekinumab (20.0%; P = .015) or approximately 6-mg/kg ustekinumab (20.2%; P = .012) groups achieved symptomatic remission at week 2 vs placebo (12.9%). Mean [SD] changes from baseline in daily stool number on day 7 were greater in the ustekinumab groups (-1.1 [2.6] in 130 mg [P = .065] and -1.2 [2.5] in ∼6 mg/kg [P = .017]) vs placebo (-0.7 [2.7]). The percentage of patients with Mayo stool frequency subscore of 1 or less and rectal bleeding subscore of 0 increased from baseline through week 16 for both ustekinumab groups. Significant improvements in partial Mayo scores were observed by week 2 in both ustekinumab groups vs placebo (P ≤ .001). Significantly more patients in the ustekinumab groups had normalized C-reactive protein levels from week 2 to week 8 vs placebo (P ≤ .05). Similar results were observed with normalized fecal calprotectin levels between week 2 and week 4 (P ≤ .05).
Conclusions:
Ustekinumab improved symptoms in patients with UC compared with placebo in as early as 7 days, indicating rapid onset of effect after induction.
Clinical Trial Registry Number:
ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02407236.
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