Vedolizumab in biologic-naïve ulcerative colitis: a multicenter real-world evaluation of clinical benefits and exploratory inflammatory indices

What To Know

This study evaluated vedolizumab (an anti‑integrin biologic) over 54 weeks in 41 biologic‑naïve ulcerative colitis patients. The primary analysis reported 73.2% clinical remission at week 54 using LOCF; a conservative non‑responder imputation estimate was lower (46.3%).

Endoscopic remission was observed in a high proportion of the paired endoscopy subgroup (83.3%), but many patients lacked endoscopic follow‑up.

The authors examined systemic inflammation indices (SII, NLR, PLR) and found baseline values did not reliably predict long‑term remission, though declining SII over time paralleled successful treatment de‑escalation in an exploratory analysis. No unexpected safety signals were reported.

Practical points: The findings support vedolizumab as an effective and generally safe first‑line biologic in this retrospective cohort, but limitations include small sample size, retrospective design, reliance on symptom‑based outcomes, and missing endoscopic data. The exploratory biomarker results are hypothesis‑generating and need prospective validation.