November 2022

Tofacitinib and Risk of Malignancy: Results From the Safety of Tofacitinib in Routine Care Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis (STAR-RA) Study

Arthritis Rheumatol. 2022;74:1648–1659 doi: 10.1002/art.42250

Large, population-based, real-world cohort of study in patients with RA finds tofacitinib not to be associated with an increased risk of malignancies, in comparison to TNFi agents, although a numerically increased risk of malignancies was observed in older patients with risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

Keywords:

October 2022

Comparative Effectiveness of Guselkumab in Psoriatic Arthritis: Updates to A Systematic Literature Review and Network Meta-analysis

Rheumatology (Oxford). 2022 doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keac500

Guselkumab (GUS) demonstrates better skin efficacy than most other targeted PsA therapies, including upadacitinib. The objective of this NMA update was to expand the network to include all targeted therapies in PsA on arthritis, skin efficacy and safety, and to include data on GUS patients with an IR to TNFinibs.

Keywords:

Risk of MACE with Tofacitinib Versus TNFi in Patients with RA With or Without a History of Atherosclerotic CV: A Post Hoc Analysis from ORAL Surveillance

Ann Rheum Dis. 2022. doi: 10.1136/ard-2022-222259

Post hoc analysis from ORAL Surveillance observes higher major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) risk with tofacitinib vs TNFi in patients with RA and history of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD).

Keywords:

September 2022

Impact of initial therapy with upadacitinib or adalimumab on achievement of 48-week treatment goals in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: post hoc analysis of SELECT-COMPARE

Rheumatology (Oxford). 2022. Epub ahead of print doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keac477

Post hoc analysis findings provide the first data evaluating the importance of treatment order with JAKinib vs TNFi as initial therapy, suggesting that a JAKinib first strategy leads to more rapid improvements in treatment outcomes following csDMARD failure.

Keywords:

Infections in patients with rheumatoid arthritis receiving tofacitinib versus tumour necrosis factor inhibitors: results from the open-label, randomised controlled ORAL Surveillance trial

doi: 10.1136/ard-2022-222405

Post hoc analysis, using the final dataset from ORAL Surveillance, reveals a higher risk of non-serious infections and herpes zoster with tofacitinib vs TNFi, and higher risk of serious infection events with tofacitinib 10 mg BID versus TNFi, particularly in patients aged ≥65 years.

Keywords:

July 2022

Is the Risk of Infection Higher During Treatment with Secukinumab than with TNF-inhibitors? An Observational Study from the Nordic Countries

Rheumatology (Oxford). 2022 doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keac358

Glintborg B et al, highlight in their recent research from the Nordic countries, that there is a low frequency of hospitalised infections during treatment with secukinumab or TNFi in patients with SpA and PsA. In clinical practice, secukinumab was found to double absolute risk of 1st year hospitalised infection compared with adalimumab, with the other TNFi treatments falling in between.

Keywords:

June 2022

Effectiveness of TNF-inhibitors, abatacept, IL6-inhibitors and JAK-inhibitors in 31 846 patients with rheumatoid arthritis in 19 registers from the ‘JAK-pot’ collaboration

Ann Rheum Dis. 2022 doi: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2022-222586

Observational study of data, from large international collective of registers, finds similar overall drug retention rates between RA treatment groups.

Keywords:

Persistence and Effectiveness of the IL-12/23 Pathway Inhibitor Ustekinumab or Tumour Necrosis Factor Inhibitor Treatment in Patients with Psoriatic Arthritis: 1-year Results From the Real-world PsABio Study

Ann Rheum Dis 2022 doi: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2021-221640

Many RCTs have demonstrated efficacy and safety of biologics in PsA. However, long term comparative real world data is lacking. This study aimed to evaluate the real-world effectiveness and persistence of the IL-12/23 inhibitor ustekinumab or a TNFi for PsA 1 year post initiation. As a result, they found that PS-adjusted comparisons demonstrated comparable overall persistence, effectiveness and safety for both modes of action in PsA.

Keywords:

Short- and longer-term cancer risks with biologic and targeted synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs as used against rheumatoid arthritis in clinical practice

Rheumatology (Oxford) 2022 doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keab570

Observational, nationwide cohort study finds no increased risk for cancer overall in RA patients treated with TNFis, anti-CD20 or anti-IL6.

Keywords:

Comparison of drug retention of TNF inhibitors, other biologics and JAK inhibitors in RA patients who discontinued JAK inhibitor therapy

Rheumatology (Oxford) 2022 doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keac285

Real-world population-based study shows that a switch to a second JAKinib results in a higher drug retention, as compared to switching to a TNFi, in patients with RA who discontinue original JAKinib therapy.

Keywords: