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Patients treated with tocilizumab for RA showed sustained improvements through second year
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According to recently published data, patients with rheumatoid arthritis treated with either tocilizumab as monotherapy or as a combination therapy with methotrexate sustained improvements from year 1 through year 2 and researchers found no new safety concerns.
Gerd R. Burmester, MD, professor of medicine and clinical researcher at the Charit University Hospital in Berlin, and colleagues assessed patients with early progressive rheumatoid arthritis who were methotrexate-naïve and randomly assigned to 104 weeks of double-blind placebo plus methotrexate, 8 mg/kg tocilizumab plus placebo, 4 mg/kg tocilizumab plus methotrexate or 8 mg/kg tocilizumab plus methotrexate. There were 1,157 patients in the intent-to-treat group and 1,153 patients in the safety group. Patients who discontinued 8 mg/kg tocilizumab monotherapy and who did not achieve a DAS28-erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) of at least 3.2 at week 52 were switched to 8 mg/kg tocilizumab plus methotrexate. This group was designated as the escape cohort.
Researchers found DAS28-ESR remission — a score of less than 2.6 — was maintained from weeks 52 through 104. The DAS28-ESR remission rate for patients who took 8 mg/kg tocilizumab plus methotrexate went from 49.3% at week 52 to 47.6% at week 104. The week 104 response rate was 51.4% for patients treated with placebo plus methotrexate and was 30.5% for the escape group. In addition, the 8 mg/kg tocilizumab group maintained inhibition of radiographic progression, which moved from a modified total Sharp score of 0.13 to 0.19 from week 52 to week 104. – by Will Offit
Disclosures: The researchers report funding by Roche. Please see the full study for a list of all other relevant financial disclosures.
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