%0 Journal Article %T Re-evaluating Methods for Assessing Differences in Response in Ileal vs. Colonic Crohn's Disease: A Post-hoc Analysis of the FITZROY Trial. %A Ma C %A Feagan BG %A Wang Z %A Zou G %A Smith MI %A Shackelton LM %A Sands BE %A Panaccione R %A D'Haens GR %A Vermeire S %A Jairath V %J J Crohns Colitis %V 0 %N 0 %D 2024 Jul 20 %M 39030919 %F 10.02 %R 10.1093/ecco-jcc/jjae113 %X OBJECTIVE: The ileum is the most commonly affected segment of the gastrointestinal tract in Crohn's disease (CD). We aimed to determine whether disease location affects response to filgotinib, a Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor, in patients with moderate-to-severely active Crohn's disease (CD) and applying appropriate methods to account for differences in measuring disease activity in the ileum compared to the colon.
METHODS: This post-hoc analysis of data from the FITZROY phase 2 trial (NCT02048618) compared changes in the Crohn's Disease Activity Index (CDAI) and Simple Endoscopic Score for Crohn's Disease (SES-CD) amongst patients with ileal-dominant and isolated colonic CD treated with 10 weeks of filgotinib 200 mg daily or placebo. A mixed effects model for repeated measures was used to test whether ileal disease responded differently than colonic disease, by evaluating for effect modification using the interaction term of treatment assignment-by-disease location.
RESULTS: Numerically greater proportions of patients with isolated colonic disease compared to ileal-dominant CD achieved clinical remission (CDAI <150, 75.9% vs. 41.6%) and endoscopic response (SES-CD reduction by 50%, 52.5% vs. 15.5%) at Week 10. However, after adjusting for baseline disease activity by disease location and within-patient clustering effects, there was no significant difference in treatment response by disease location (mean difference in ΔCDAI between ileal-dominant vs. isolated colonic disease +9.24 [95% CI: -87.19, +105.67], p=0.85; mean difference in ΔSES-CD -1.93 [95% CI: -7.03, +3.44], p=0.48).
CONCLUSIONS: Filgotinib demonstrated similar efficacy in ileal-dominant and isolated colonic CD when controlling for baseline disease activity and clustering effects.