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Vedolizumab -Could it Work for Eosinophilic Gastroenteritis?

January 10, 2019 7:00 am

A recent study with only five patients (HP Kim et al. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 2018; 16: 1992-4) examined the use of vedolizumab for eosinophilic gastroenteritis.. The rationale was that α4β7 integrin may play an important role in eosinophilic localization in IBD and that blocking α4β7 may inhibit eosinophil recruitment to intestinal mucosa. In addition, there are few proven therapies for EGE beyond steroids and dietary treatments. The five patients in this study had been tried on numerous prior treatments and had a disease course of 6-17 years prior to vedolizumab.

Key findings:

Two of the five patients were able to wean/discontinue steroids, reported symptom improvement and had normal gastric and small bowel biopsies. The median time to histologic followup was 2.2 months.
A third patient reported symptom improvement but declined a followup biopsy.

My take: A larger study of vedolizumab is needed for EGE.

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