Re: "As for the cancer risk - doesn't everything carry a risk? I would rather deal with the (slight) potential risk of cancer vs. not being able to live my life as I want to....." This is exactly what my loved one said - verbatim; he's not living his life anymore, much less his way. It made sense at the time. He was miserable with terrible pains and frequent goings and went on a combo of Remicade, Imuran, prednisone several months after being diagnosed with Crohn's. We was embarrassed, socially and physically limited, and worse, in pain. While some of his pain receded, a bowel re-section (they took about a foot) was still recommended to get his condition to more than tolerable. I credit that and some major lifestyle changes for ending his misery with Crohn's, yet the doc insisted he keep up with the infusions after the surgery as a follow-up measure/to keep things going well. I was scared to death about the warnings on the patient information sheets from Day 1 - mostly infection risk because I lost someone to sepsis. What happened was different: Approximately 1 year after his first infusion, he was diagnosed with a frontal lobe glioma (brain tumor). They don't know for certain what causes brain tumors or how long they can lie dormant in your brain before they grow and you become symptomatic. However, for a man of about 36 years old at the time, the diagnosis seemed very odd, as did the relative timing of the infusions v. tumor appearance. (It's not uncommon for children or the elderly to get a glioma; his age is unusual.) When I relayed my suspicions about the infusions, the only out of the ordinary exposure he had (cancer is one part exposure, one part predisposition), he said "if it was lymphoma, ok, but its just that and "certain other types" of cancer; brain tumors would have been reported specifically. As I told him, I take two major issue with that assertion: 1. I was put on an FDA-approved drug, Vioxx, for chest pains that was later pulled from the market for giving people heart attacks. Doctors told me it was in my head when I told them I was getting palpitations. 2. His GI doctor never reported his tumor to the FDA for their consideration - and I asked him to. If you don't continue to ask the questions, especially regarding long-term, post FDA-approval effects, how can you have or maintain reliable data long-term? I understand the sentiment of "why suffer" and risk vs. reward, but what I caution is: You can live with Crohn's; its a devil, but its the devil you know. A friend of my stepmother's has Crohn's and a father who is a doctor. "He would never let me go on that (Remicade) without a fight; we had the discussion" she had told me when I asked what he thought of it. She's had Crohn's for decades and has good and bad days (wherein she can't get out of bed). I don't believe for a second though that her father would let her suffer if Remicade were the miracle cure it's sold as. I believe my loved one had Crohn's for at least a decade before I knew him, looking at old photos. He was about 165lbs and rail thin in those photos up to the time of the re-section; about 190 at the time of his death. He looked better; digestion-wise, he felt better (after a minor, post-surgical bowel obstruction). But, again, most of that "better" came after the surgery. Remicade/Imuran were no miracle cures for him and he had to be off the Imuran for months to get the surgery because of his cell counts. Further, you can go into remission with Crohn's. You don't go into remission with a glioma unless you're blessed enough for it to be in a location they can take the whole thing out; highly unlikely, according to the statistics: 75% of patients with gliomas succumb within 12 years of diagnosis - treated or untreated; 50% in the first 5-8yrs. He died within 6 - textbook - and I believe traded a known and uphill battle with a horrid (I do not belittle your circumstances at all, the pain can be debilitating) though livable (meaning you can survive) condition for a small chance of a worse, fatal one, and he lost. It was against the odds, according to the drug company's lit, but it is unrecoverable. I'll be trying to report this to the FDA to see if they will just do some investigation into the instance of gliomas and Remicade/Imuran use. I couldn't do that while he was alive; he had such respect for his doctor. But I feel like its the least I owe him, and you, now.