New Approaches for Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Abstract

To the Editor. —

We have read Paul Cotton's excellent review article, "New Approaches May Aid Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease,"¹and we would like to report our preliminary results with interferon alpha-2a (Roferon-A/Roche) for treating children with severe, therapy-refractive inflammatory bowel disease: one girl with ulcerative colitis and two boys with Crohn's disease. The patients have received 3 million U of interferon alpha-2a subcutaneously three times a week for a period of 4 to 6 months. The treatment significantly ameliorated the clinical symptoms in all patients: urgency and bloody diarrhea, as well as abdominal pains after 4 weeks. The girl with ulcerative colitis is now in full remission with normal bowel movements and no bloody diarrhea and has a normal life-style. Both boys with Crohn's disease have gained weight, and their perianal fistulas have healed with their achievement of complete clinical and histological remission. The rationale for treating