Overcoming the challenges of overtreating and undertreating inflammatory bowel disease

Abstract

Several therapeutic advances have been achieved over the past two decades for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The expanding therapeutic armamentarium and the increasingly ambitious treatment targets have led to an increased use of advanced therapies and better outcomes. Nevertheless, many patients remain suboptimally treated and are at risk of disease progression, hospital admission, and surgery, even when advanced therapies are cycled, escalated, or combined. Conversely, IBD can also be characterised by an indolent disease course. Top-down and treat-to-target strategies, although beneficial in a substantial proportion of patients, might not be advantageous in patients with mild disease and might risk overtreatment. Identifying patients with mild activity and a benign disease trajectory in the long-term is important; unnecessary exposure to advanced therapies increases the risk of adverse events and increases financial costs and health-care resource utilisation. This Review details the importance of adopting clinical strategies to avoid the pitfalls of undertreating and overtreating IBD.