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Use of Crohn's Disease Exclusion Diet on Top of Standard Therapy Versus Standard Therapy Alone in Unstable Pediatric Crohn's Disease Patients.

Randomized Trial for Unstable Pediatric Crohn's Disease Patients Comparing the Use of Crohn's Disease Exclusion Diet (CDED) on Top of Standard Therapy Versus Standard Therapy Alone.

Status
Recruiting
Phases
Phase 3
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT04777656
Acronym
ASCENSION
Enrollment
120
Registered
2021-03-02
Start date
2022-09-26
Completion date
2026-11-01
Last updated
2026-03-27

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Crohn's Disease

Keywords

Crohn's disease, Recurrent inflammatory disorder, Immunomodulators, Biologics, Exclusive Enteral Nutrition, Crohn's disease exclusion diet (CDED), Modulen™IBD®

Brief summary

This research is a multicenter French randomized and single blinded phase III clinical trial evaluating two treatment strategies among Crohn's disease (CD) patients. The main objective is to assess if the addition of Crohn's Disease Exclusion Diet (CDED) to ongoing standard medication is superior to reduce the rate of relapses over 12 months compared to standard medication alone in children/adolescents with unstable CD responding with remission after a 2-months course of CDED

Detailed description

Crohn's disease is a recurrent inflammatory disorder. Current treatment strategies aim reducing intestinal (and systemic) inflammation based on the use of Immunomodulators (IM) and biologics (B). However, some patients, particularly in the pediatric age group do not respond with remission to standard therapy and approximately 30% of patients lose response to efficient therapy. There is a clear unmet need for new treatment strategies. In addition, patients and families have a high degree of reluctance to use IM/B as life-long medication, particularly due to potential side effects including cancer, lymphomas, serious infections or drug-related immune diseases. This is of particular importance for children/adolescents with CD, potentially exposed over many decades to various IM/B. Experimental and epidemiological data indicate that the western life style and particularly modern food play a key role in the development of CD, probably via alteration of the intestinal barrier function and/or enforcing the intestinal dysbiosis. Based on these data and the observation that exclusive enteral nutrition is highly efficacious in inducing remission in active CD, nutritional therapies are more and more in the focus for the development of new treatment approaches. The main objective is to assess if the addition of CDED to ongoing standard medication is superior to reduce the rate of relapses over 12 months compared to standard medication alone in children/adolescents with unstable CD responding with remission after a 2-months course of CDED. To achieve this objective, eligible patients with active CD will participate to this study for a 13 months period. After a screening period, the patients will have a 2 months run-in phase where they will follow the CDED protocol, but continue their maintenance therapy, with the exception of corticosteroid that have to be tapered and stopped at the end of the 2 months. Then, the patients responding to CDED during run-in will be randomized at M2 to one of the two treatment arms (CDED/Modulen™IBD® or Unrestricted food access) and will have 4 follow-up visits (M4, M6, M9 and M12)

Interventions

DIETARY_SUPPLEMENTPhase1 : CDED/Modulen™IBD® + Maintenance therapy

from D0 until M2: Phase 1 (2 months run-in phase with CDED protocol + maintenance therapy, with the exception of corticosteroid that have to be tapered and stopped until M2.)

DIETARY_SUPPLEMENTPhase2 and 3 :

from M2 until M4 CDED phase 2 (introduction of a selected number of additional food). From M4 until end of the study CDED phase 3 (enlargement of number of additional foods and allowance of some initially excluded foods).

Sponsors

Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris
Lead SponsorOTHER
MICALIS Institute
CollaboratorUNKNOWN
URC-CIC Paris Descartes Necker Cochin
CollaboratorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
6 Years to 17 Years
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

* Child/Adolescent aged 6-17 years with a confirmed diagnosis of CD (for at least 3 months) with an active disease (defined as: wPCDAI \>12.5 or CRP \> 2 times upper limit or calprotectin levels \>250µg/g if available) despite anti-inflammatory (5-ASA and derivates), corticosteroids, immunomodulator (thiopurines or methotrexate) and/or biologic therapy (anti-TNF, anti-integrin anti-IL23 antibodies) * For girls of childbearing age: a negative pregnancy test, and use of an effective method of contraception (abstinence, oral contraceptives, intra-uterine device, diaphragm with spermicide and condom) * Patient willing to comply with daily intake of an exclusion diet * Informed and signed consent of parents * Patient affiliated to social security (or health insurance)

Exclusion criteria

* Active perianal fistulizing disease * Internal fistula or evidence of un-drained and un-controlled abscess/phlegmon * Patient who require CD-related surgical therapy * Patient with known allergy to cow milk's proteins * Patient incapable to follow CDED for a prolonged period * Pregnancy, breastfeeding * Patient already included in an interventional study

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Relapse from randomization until M1212 monthsRelapse is defined as weighted Paediatric Crohn's disease activity index (wPCDAI) \>40 points and/or CRP \>2 times over upper limit (in the absence of any obvious infections sign) or if at two consecutive visits (within 2-8 weeks) the wPCDAI is \>12,5 but less 40 and/or CRP \>1,5 but less 2 times over upper limit (in the absence of any obvious infections sign) or if the patient required additional CD-specific medication/surgery in the interval.

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Change of wPCDAI from baseline to M22 months
Change of fecal calprotectin values from baseline to M22 months
Clinical remission at M22 monthsDefined as wPCDAI ≤12.5 and normal CRP (≤1.5 fold upper normal range)
Deep remission at M22 monthsDefined as wPCDAI ≤12.5 and normal CRP within normal lab range) and normal fecal calprotectin ((\<250µg/g)
Physician global assessment (PGA) from baseline to M22 monthsCrohn's Disease activity assessed as remission - weak - moderate - severe
Mucosal healing at M22 monthsabsence of any ulcerations (including aphthae)
Endoscopic response at M22 monthsDecrease of Crohn's Disease Endoscopic Index Score (CDEIS) ≥ 50% from baseline
Change of MRI from baseline to M22 monthsSimplified Magnetic Resonance Index of Activity (MARIA) for Crohn's Disease score from baseline to M2
CDED tolerance rate at M22 monthsserious and non serious adverse events
CDED compliance rate at M22 months
Change of intestinal microbiome composition from baseline to M22 months
Clinical remissionAt 4 months, 6 months, 9 months and 12 monthsDefined as wPCDAI ≤12.5 and normal CRP (≤1.5 fold upper normal range)
Deep remissionAt 4 months, 6 months, 9 months and 12 monthsDefined as wPCDAI ≤12.5 and normal CRP (within normal lab range) and normal fecal calprotectin (\<250µg/g)
RelapseAt 4 months, 6 months, 9 months and 12 monthsDefined as wPCDAI \>40 points and/or CRP \>2 times over upper limit (in the absence of any obvious infections sign) or if at two consecutive visits (within 2-8 weeks) the wPCDAI is \>12,5 but less 40 and/or CRP \>1,5 but less 2 times over upper limit (in the absence of any obvious infections sign) or if the patient required additional CD-specific medication/surgery in the interval
Physician global assessment (PGA)At 4 months, 6 months, 9 months and 12 monthsCrohn's Disease activity assessed as remission - weak - moderate - severe
Mucosal Healing at M1212 monthsAbsence of any ulcerations (including aphthae)
Endoscopic response at M1212 monthsDecrease of Crohn's Disease Endoscopic Index Score (CDEIS) ≥ 50% from baseline
Change of MRI from M2 to M1212 monthsSimplified Magnetic Resonance Index of Activity (MARIA) for Crohn's Disease score from M2 to M12
CDED tolerance rate at M1212 monthsSerious and non serious adverse events
CDED compliance rate at M1212 months
Change of Intestinal microbiome compositionAt 4 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months
Change of quality of life IMPACT-3 from inclusion until 12 monthsAt baseline, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 monthsIMPACT-3 questionnaire of 35 closed questions - scale ranging from 1 to 5 for all answers - higher score suggesting better quality of life

Countries

France

Contacts

CONTACTFranck Ruemmele, MD, PhD
frank.ruemmele@aphp.fr+33 (0)1 44 49 25 16
CONTACTPrissile Bakouboula, PhD
prissile.bakouboula@aphp.fr+33 (0)1 71 19 64 94
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORFranck Ruemmele, MD, PhD

Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Mar 28, 2026