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Etoricoxib may relieve some symptoms of axial ankylosing spondylitis
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Etoricoxib may be a potential therapy for patients with axial ankylosing spondylitis who do not respond well to traditional NSAIDs and may provide an alternative to biologics for some patients, according to a recently published report.
Researchers conducted an open-label, multicenter, randomized, prospective study of 57 patients (46 men) with axial ankylosing spondylitis (AS) for 4 weeks of treatment followed by a 6-month extension. Patients were a mean age of 43 years, with symptoms refractory to traditional NSAIDs.
Fifty-three patients completed the trial, and 23 patients continued into the extension. At 4 weeks, 46% of patients had a good clinical response and 20% met the Assessment of Spondyloarthritis International Society response criteria for biologic therapies with improvements observed at week 2. Levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) were reduced, but the results did not meet statistical significance. However, 30% of patients had normal levels of CRP after 4 weeks.
“Etoricoxib provided a clear clinical improvement in around a third of patients with axial AS refractory to traditional NSAIDs,” the researchers wrote. “Special care should be required when deciding to start anti-[tumor necrosis factor-alpha] TNF- therapy; it seems reasonable to keep in mind these results of etoricoxib treatment.” – by Shirley Pulawski
Disclosure: The researchers report MSD provided financial support for the logistics of the paper and no competing interests.
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