| [ Summary ] |
Dramatic improvement has recently been achieved in therapeutic strategies for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In this report, we review the current and future prospects of cytapheresis (CAP) therapy for IBD patients. CAP for ulcerative colitis (UC) should include intensive bi-weekly therapy and the body-weight oriented procedures to improve the therapeutic efficiency of CAP. Therapy for Crohn's disease should be conducted for remission induction with 10 weekly granulocyte/monocytapheresis (GMA) sessions and the hybrid therapy, consisting of GMA and anti-TNF antibody therapy. In the future, GMA may be used to maintain clinical remission in UC patients through monthly treatments. It may be assumed that CAP therapy has the potential to share an independent status among the therapeutic strategy for IBD patients. |