Breaking Through the Therapeutic Ceiling: What Will It Take?

Outcomes for patients starting a new treatment for inflammatory bowel disease are characterized by uncertainty of treatment response. Although it is natural to hope that new treatments will be characterized by better efficacy, remission is still far from a universal experience for patients living with inflammatory bowel disease. At times, an apparent glass ceiling appears to constrain progress toward a goal of maximal long-term health care-related quality of life for all. There are a number of areas that can and should be addressed if we are to make significant progress. These range from improved early diagnosis and initial management through better treatment stratification and response monitoring, to improvements in clinical trial design and selection of drugs in combination therapies. In this article, we discuss the steps required in all of these areas to make best use of new therapeutic options and shatter the glass ceiling.

Automated summary

There is a high level of uncertainty in the treatment response for patients starting a new treatment for inflammatory bowel disease. To overcome the current limitations, improvements are needed in areas such as diagnosis, treatment stratification, response monitoring, and clinical trial design.