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What is Crohn's disease?
Crohn's disease is a lifelong condition where the immune system causes ongoing inflammation in the digestive tract. It most often affects the end of the small intestine and the start of the colon, but it can appear anywhere from mouth to anus, often in patches with healthy tissue in between. Common symptoms are abdominal pain, diarrhea, weight loss, tiredness, and sometimes fever or mouth sores. Because inflammation runs through the whole bowel wall, Crohn's can create strictures (narrowed sections), fistulas (tunnels between the bowel and other organs or skin), and abscesses. It usually starts between 15 and 35, and about 1 in 5 people are diagnosed as children or teenagers. Roughly 1 in 100 Americans lives with inflammatory bowel disease, and Crohn's accounts for close to half of that.
Crohn's is not caused by stress or diet, though both can affect symptoms. It comes from a mix of genes, the immune system, gut bacteria, and environment, and it is becoming more common worldwide: the number of people with IBD nearly doubled between 1990 and 2017.
Types of Crohn's disease clinical trials
Treatment trials for new medicines. The largest group. These test a new drug against placebo or an approved medicine in people with moderate to severe Crohn's, usually in two stages: induction (does it calm the disease in 12 weeks) and maintenance (does the effect hold for a year). Because Crohn's is measured with a colonoscopy and not only symptoms, participants are scoped at set points.
Trials for fistulas and strictures. Crohn's specific complications get their own research. Cell therapies injected into fistula tracts and imaging that can tell scar tissue from active inflammation in a narrowed bowel are both in trials right now, and both address problems ulcerative colitis rarely creates.
Treatment strategy studies. Not every trial tests a new molecule. Some compare approved medicines head to head, test giving a biologic as a shot at home instead of an infusion, or ask whether people in long remission can safely space out their doses.
Pregnancy and family studies. Because Crohn's usually starts in the childbearing years, studies follow pregnancy outcomes in women taking biologics, and family studies track relatives of people with IBD to understand who develops it and why.
Gut microbiome, diet, and observational studies. These look at whether gut bacteria can predict who will respond to a medicine, how artificial sweeteners or prebiotics affect the gut in IBD, and how the disease behaves over years. No treatment is promised, but these studies shape what gets tested next.
Who can participate in Crohn's disease clinical trials?
Most Crohn's trials look at three things. Your disease activity, usually measured with a score called the CDAI, which combines symptoms like stool frequency and pain, plus what a colonoscopy shows. Where your disease is: small bowel, colon, or both, and whether you have fistulas or strictures, since some studies focus on those specifically. And your treatment history: many studies want people whose current biologic has stopped working, while others want people who have never taken one. Some trials exclude people who have had bowel surgery or who have an ostomy, and others are built exactly for them. Pregnancy studies and family studies often have the widest doors. Eligibility always varies by study.
How Crohn's disease is classified, and why it matters for trials
Crohn's has no stage 1 to 4. Doctors describe it two ways. By location: ileal (end of the small intestine), colonic, ileocolonic (both, the most common), or upper digestive tract. And by behavior: inflammatory, stricturing (narrowing), or penetrating (fistulas and abscesses), with perianal disease noted separately. Severity is scored as mild, moderate, or severe using the CDAI and what the scope shows. Nearly every study names the activity it enrolls, usually "moderately to severely active," and many name a behavior, like "perianal fistulizing Crohn's." Knowing your location and behavior type from your last colonoscopy report tells you at a glance which studies fit you.
Do Crohn's disease trial participants get paid?
Some studies offer compensation for time and travel, and study related care is typically provided at no cost to participants. Compensation varies by trial and is always described during the informed consent process before you agree to anything.
Curious whether clinical trials pay participants? Here's how compensation actually works.
How to enroll in a Crohn's disease clinical trial
Enrolling in a Crohn's disease study through our platform takes about 5 minutes. Here is how it works:
Identify your trial. Use the search bar or filters to find Crohn's studies that match what you are looking for. Study titles usually name the activity level ("moderately to severely active") and sometimes the type, like perianal fistulizing Crohn's, so you can tell quickly which ones fit.
Select your preferred location. Enter your city or state in the filter on the left to see studies enrolling near you. Many biologic trials need a study center that can do scheduled colonoscopies and infusions, so distance matters more here than in some other conditions.
Explore study details. Click "Learn More" on any study to see its goals, procedures, and eligibility criteria, including which prior medicines it requires or excludes, and how many scopes are scheduled.
Complete the health profile. Click "Get started" to begin the 5-step application. It helps to have three things ready: your current Crohn's medicines, the location and behavior of your disease from your last colonoscopy report, and whether you have had bowel surgery. Those three answers decide eligibility for most Crohn's studies.
Submit the application. A clinical trial coordinator reviews it and contacts you about whether you may qualify. Nothing is decided until you have gone through informed consent, and participation is voluntary at every step.