[Alpha-interferon therapy in Crohn's disease: initial clinical results].

4 therapies in 3 patients (1 female, 2 male) suffering from steroid dependent Crohn's disease are described. Interferon alpha-2b was administered for 24 weeks (3 million I.U. per day for 4 weeks, and 3 x 3 million U.I. per week for 20 weeks). Prednisolone dosage at start of therapy depended on initial inflammatory activity (CDAI). The daily dose was reduced stepwise and omitted after 12 weeks. In two courses patients did not respond and therapy had to be halted after 12 and 14 weeks' duration because of increasing disease activity. During the other two treatments a decrease in disease activity of 118 and 70 CDAI units (in both cases after 8 weeks) could be achieved. In particular, the course in one patient with abundant intestinal and extraintestinal inflammatory activity was quite impressive: extraintestinal activity disappeared completely within 10 days, CDAI ameliorated substantially for 30 weeks and the patient could be treated without steroids for a total period of 18 weeks. As a preliminary conclusion from the cases described up to now, it can be speculated that females probably respond more favorably to a combined therapy with interferon alpha and corticosteroids. Moreover, we suggest that the potential of interferon in Crohn's disease might be to overcome a steroid refractory disease state rather than to allow omission of steroid medication which could not be further reduced without exacerbation. Clearly, present experience of interferon therapy in Crohn's disease is still too scarce and more work needs to be done to define the role of interferon in IBD.