Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 7, 2019; 25(9): 1142-1157
Published online Mar 7, 2019. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v25.i9.1142
Conventional therapy for moderate to severe inflammatory bowel disease: A systematic literature review
Adérson Omar Mourão Cintra Damião, Matheus Freitas Cardoso de Azevedo, Alexandre de Sousa Carlos, Marcela Yumi Wada, Taciana Valéria Marcolino Silva, Flávio de Castro Feitosa
Adérson Omar Mourão Cintra Damião, Matheus Freitas Cardoso de Azevedo, Alexandre de Sousa Carlos, Department of Gastroenterology, University of São Paulo School of Medicine, São Paulo 05403-000, Brazil
Marcela Yumi Wada, Taciana Valéria Marcolino Silva, Flávio de Castro Feitosa, Department of Medical Affairs, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, São Paulo 04709-011, Brazil
Author contributions: Damião AOMC, Azevedo MFC, Carlos AS, Wada MY, Silva TVM, and Feitosa FC contributed to the analysis and interpretation of data; critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content; granted final approval of the version to be published; and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Adérson Omar Mourão Cintra Damião has been a speaker for Takeda, Abbvie, and Janssen; has been an advisory board member for Takeda; and has received conference grants from Janssen, Takeda and Abbvie. Matheus Freitas Cardoso de Azevedo and Alexandre de Sousa Carlos have received research grants from Takeda, Janssen, and Abbvie. Marcela Yumi Wada, Taciana Valéria Marcolino Silva and Flávio de Castro Feitosa work at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Brazil.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Flávio de Castro Feitosa, MSc, PhD, Doctor, Department of Medical Affairs, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Rua Estilo Barroco, 721, São Paulo 04709-011, Brazil. flavio.feitosa@takeda.com
Telephone: +55-71-97295355 Fax: +55-11-51810081
Received: December 19, 2018
Peer-review started: December 21, 2018
First decision: January 6, 2019
Revised: January 28, 2019
Accepted: February 15, 2019
Article in press: February 15, 2019
Published online: March 7, 2019
Processing time: 78 Days and 11 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Despite the advent of biological drugs, conventional therapy continues to be used in moderate to severe inflammatory bowel disease (MS-IBD), especially in countries where biologics are not covered by insurance. In this systematic review, the effectiveness of conventional therapy for MS-IBD is assessed. There are few studies concerning objective outcomes, especially for remission maintenance, mucosal healing and fecal calprotectin. Additionally, studies are mainly of very low or low quality. As conventional therapy is usually the main therapy for MS-IBD and biologics are used in patients who fail to respond to conventional drugs, robust studies are required to further our understanding of the effectiveness of conventional therapy because it is prescribed to many IBD patients.