Emerging pharmaceutical therapy for the treatment of ulcerative colitis

Abstract

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic relapsing and remitting inflammatory disease of the colon that generally requires lifelong treatment ( Mehta et al, 2013 ). Therefore, the therapeutic treatment for UC is complex and must be tailored to an individual's circumstances and degree of disease severity. The mainstay therapy has been treatment with systemic and local corticosteroids, but new treatments have been introduced, with new formulae available to affect novel elements of the chronic inflammatory process. This article is an update of a previous summary of this complex topic ( Fraser, 2008 ).