High-dose Cyclophosphamide for Severe Refractory Crohn Disease

This research is being done to see if people with Crohn's disease who receive high-dose cyclophosphamide have an improvement of their disease, how long the benefit may last, and how safe cyclophosphamide is. This study is for patient with medically refractory disease that is not easily amenable to surgery. Cyclophosphamide is an FDA-approved chemotherapy medication that is also frequently used to treat autoimmune illness; use of cyclophosphamide for autoimmune disease is not approved by the FDA. An autoimmune illness is when the immune system mistakenly attacks self, targeting the cells, tissues, and organs of a person's own body. There are many different autoimmune diseases and they can each affect the body is different ways. Crohn's disease is an autoimmune disease that primarily affects the small and large intestines. High dose-cyclophosphamide has been successfully used to treat Crohn's, primarily as part of a conditioning regimen for autologous stem cell transplantation. However, this therapy is limited in Crohn's because of it's serious infectious risks. This current study involves using high-dose cyclophosphamide without need for stem cell transplantation. This appears to be a safer approach in other autoimmune illnesses that have been studied.