Methotrexate-associated Anti-TNF Combination Therapy, the Neglected One !

The results of the SONIC trial represented a significant advance in the management of patients with chronic inflammatory bowel disease by demonstrating the superiority of the combination of an alpha TNF anti-TNF with immunosuppressive therapy in naive patients (infliximab and azathioprine) compared to monotherapy in terms of clinical and endoscopic remission (40% versus 22%, p = 0.017). The benefit of this combination therapy is both pharmacological (addition, or even synergy of the two treatments) and immunological (reduction of the risk of immunization to biotherapy). Data on the use of immunosuppressive methotrexate treatment are divergent. Indeed, a previous randomized trial suggested that the combination of anti-TNF alpha including infliximab and methotrexate was no more effective than anti-TNF alpha monotherapy in patients with Crohn's disease. However, the superiority of this combination has been clearly demonstrated over monotherapy in rheumatology for a long time. In practice, more and more practitioners are prescribing this combination (antiTNF and MTX) in IBD patients because of tolerance problems, particularly to azathioprine or in patients with a dual expression of their disease, both digestive and joint. The interest of my thesis work is therefore to be able to clarify these grey areas and to be able to modify or comfort therapeutic choices in practice.