Predictors of the Treatment Response

Slowly but surely, in almost a decade, researchers have been provided with convincing evidence for the important role of anti-TNF therapy and a potential mechanism for the efficacy of anti-TNF therapy in the management of ulcerative colitis. Now, researchers are taking another big step forward to identify predictors of the treatment response to anti-TNF therapy in order to deliver personalized care. Identifying predictors involves a wide repertoire of genetic, epigenetic, and clinical events, as well as pharmacokinetics. Along with rapidly progressing experimental studies aiming to understand the molecular pathways of TNF-α, evidence gained from analyses of pivotal clinical trials and accumulating data from longer periods of patient exposure have opened up multiple avenues of investigation for the development of comprehensive composite predictors of the treatment response of ulcerative colitis patients to anti-TNF therapy.