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Azathioprine and 6-mercaptopurine (6MP) induce and maintain remission in Crohn's disease and now are used also in the treatment of ulcerative colitis. However, due to concerns about the long-term risk of tumor development associated with immunosuppression, experts often recommend withdrawing patients from these immunosuppressive drugs after several years of disease remission. These 2 follow-up studies by the same research group provide long-term data on the development of tumors in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) treated with 6MP over 27 years, and compare relapse rates in patients maintained on 6MP therapy with those of patients withdrawn from 6MP therapy after induction of remission.
The first study described 550 patients (3…