Stopping Remicade forever Crohns Disease

[Ih8crohns]

I have been on Remicade for 12 years and have been in remission since starting it 12 years ago. Before I started the Remicade I had tried Pentasa and it didn't work. I also had to stop Remicade for 1 year about 5 years ago because of another medication and I stayed in remission during that year. I recently had the antibodies blood test also and then my Doctor said I can stop Remicade if I want because I had said I wanted to go off of it. Has anyone here heard of stopping Remicade and staying in remission for years? or going back to try Pentasa and staying in remission?

 

[my little penguin]

There is this

http://online.ccfa.org/site/DocServer/Haper_-_Can_I_Stop_IBD_Therapy.pdf?docID=28681

Abstract
Anti-tumour necrosis factor α (anti-TNFα) therapy is an established treatment in inflammatory bowel disease. However, this treatment is associated with high costs and the possibility of severe adverse events representing a true challenge for patients, clinicians and health care systems. Consequently, a crucial question is raised namely if therapy can be stopped once remission is achieved and if so, how and in whom. Additionally, in a real-life clinical setting, discontinuation may also be considered for other reasons such as the patient’s preference, pregnancy, social reasons as moving to countries or continents with less access, or different local policy or reimbursement. In contrast to initiation of anti-TNFα therapy guidelines regarding stopping of this treatment are missing. As a result, the decision of discontinuation is still a challenging aspect in the use of anti-TNFα therapy. Currently this is typically based on an estimated, case-by-case, benefit-risk ratio. This editorial is intended to provide an overview of recent data on this topic and shed light on the proposed drug withdrawal strategies.

From
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4408449/

http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/4/12/e005887


http://advancesinibd.com/archive/2014/presentations/Friday/Clinical/Session-IIIA/0850_Hanauer.pptx

Conclusions
Discontinuing biologic therapy may be justified in highly selected patients to optimize the benefit/risk ratio and the benefit/cost ratio, but it should never jeopardize tight disease control.
The decision to discontinue biologic therapy should be made on a case-by-case basis, in conjunction with the patient, and considering the following factors:
Patient demographics
Disease features
Treatment history
Current clinical status: mucosal healing, clinical and biological remission, drug and ADA levels
Approximately 50% of patients who stop biologics relapse within 2 years, but 50% maintain remission.
The majority of patients retreated with biologics after discontinuation achieve clinical benefit.

From
http://www.mentoringinibd.com/optimizing-management-in-ibd-the-rules-of-stopping-biologics/