Thiopurines Have Longer Treatment Durability than Methotrexate in Adults and Children with Crohn's Disease: A Nationwide Analysis from the epi-IIRN Cohort

Ohad Atia, Chagit Friss, Natan Ledderman, Shira Greenfeld, Revital Kariv, Saleh Daher, Henit Yanai, Yiska Loewenberg Weisband, Eran Matz, Iris Dotan, Dan Turner*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background: Thiopurines and methotrexate have long been used to maintain remission in Crohn's disease [CD]. In this nationwide study, we aimed to compare the effectiveness and safety of these drugs in CD. Methods: We used data from the epi-IIRN cohort, including all patients with CD diagnosed in Israel. Outcomes were compared by propensity-score matching and included therapeutic failure, hospitalisations, surgeries, steroid dependency, and adverse events. Results: Of the 19264 patients diagnosed with CD since 2005, 3885 [20%] ever received thiopurines as monotherapy and 553 [2.9%] received methotrexate. Whereas the use of thiopurines declined from 22% in 2012-2015 to 12% in 2017-2020, the use of methotrexate remained stable. The probability of sustaining therapy at 1, 3, and 5 years was 64%, 51%, and 44% for thiopurines and 56%, 30%, and 23% for methotrexate, respectively [p <0.001]. Propensity-score matching, including 303 patients [202 with thiopurines, 101 with methotrexate], demonstrated a higher rate of 5-year durability for thiopurines [40%] than methotrexate [18%; p <0.001]. Time to steroid dependency [p = 0.9], hospitalisation [p = 0.8], and surgery [p = 0.1] were comparable between groups. These outcomes reflect also shorter median time to biologics with methotrexate (2.2 [IQR 1.6-3.1 years) versus thiopurines (6.6 [2.4-8.5]; p = 0.02). The overall adverse events rate was higher with thiopurines [20%] than methotrexate [12%; p <0.001], including three lymphoma cases in males, although the difference was not significant [4.8 vs 0 cases/10 000 treatment-years, respectively; p = 0.6]. Conclusion: Thiopurines demonstrated higher treatment durability than methotrexate but more frequent adverse events. However, disease outcomes were similar, partly due to more frequent escalation to biologics with methotrexate.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1614-1623
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of Crohn's and Colitis
Volume17
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Oct 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s).

Keywords

  • Crohn's disease
  • epi-IIRN
  • methotrexate
  • outcomes
  • thiopurines

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