Millie Long, MD: The Safety of Ustekinumab

Ustekinumab is moving toward the top of the class of biologics for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) , not only in terms of efficacy, but also safety.

Now several years into research on the treatment, safety concerns might be few and far between.

In new data presented during 2022 Digestive Disease Week Annual Meeting in San Diego, investigators found little evidence of malignancies following ustekinumab treatment for patients with ulcerative colitis, as well as psoriatic arthritis.

In the study, the investigators followed 6710 patients treated with ustekinumab for up to 5 years, involving 13,807 years of follow-up.

The incidence rate of patients with at least 1 malignancies per 100 patient-years for all malignancies was 1.00 (95% CI, 0.84-1.118), compared to 0.73 for the placebo group.

In an interview with, HCPLive®, Millie D. Long, MD, MPH, FACG, University of North Carolina, explained how the study just adds to a growing list of reasons ustekinumab is safe and effective for patients with IBD.

Long also spoke in favor of the treatment as an option for patients with either ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease as a lot of biologics favor 1 disease over the other.