Treatment of chronic radiation enteritis and colitis with salicylazosulfapyridine and systemic corticosteroids. A pilot study.

Four patients with severe chronic radiation enteritis and/or colitis were treated with anti-inflammatory drugs that are used conventionally in the treatment of idiopathic inflammatory bowel disease. Salicylazosulfapyridine (SASP) was used in the treatment of all four patients, while one patient received oral prednisone together with SASP. All four patients were treated and observed for over one year, with follow-up observations now extending to over three years. The four patients showed striking clinical improvement, accompanied by improvement in the radiographic appearance of affected bowel, complete or almost complete in three and incomplete in the fourth patient. The results of this pilot investigation are encouraging and call for wider clinical trials of the same and related drugs in larger groups of patients with chronic radiation enterocolitis, a serious condition that has until now not been successfully treated with drugs.