INFLAMMATORY BOWEL-DISEASE - POTENTIAL THERAPEUTIC STRATEGIES

This review deals with potential and possibly primary therapeutics tha t, through insight into the inflammatory cascade, result in more ratio nal treatment principles replacing the classical therapy of inflammato ry bowel disease (IBD), i.e. Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colit is (UC). These new therapies might be useful for IBD patients, especia lly since the 'classical therapy' with agents like glucocorticoids, su lfasalazine, mesalazine, azathioprine, B-mercaptopurine, cyclosporin a nd methotrexate is often only moderately effective and may have import ant side effects. Controlled trials of the novel agents mentioned in t his review have not yet been performed, however.