February 2019

Tofacitinib in Combination with Methotrexate in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: Clinical Efficacy, Radiographic and Safety Outcomes from the 24-Month Phase 3 ORAL Scan Study

Arthritis Rheumatol. 2019 Jun;71(6):878-891

RA patients receiving TOF 5 or 10 mg BID plus MTX showed sustained clinical and radiographic treatment effects through months 12-24. The safety profile was consistent with previous TOF studies. The 12-month data from the ORAL Scan study have been previously reported. This report assesses durability of responses, including structural damage progression, and safety with TOF through 24 months. Patients were randomized 4:4:1:1 to receive TOF 5 or 10 mg BID, or PBO advanced to TOF with stable, backgr...

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December 2018

Professor Iain McInnes Reviews the Most Notable Papers from 2018

Please click the links below to go to the CSF review of each paper

2018 brought a wealth of new data in cytokine signalling and IL-6 that helps inform current clinical practice and brings the promise of new options in the future. There was good data on the use of sub cutaneous tocilizumab as well as strategies in early RA and for methotrexate tapering. For the currently marketed JAK inhibitors, tofacitinib and baricitinib, continuous long-term efficacy and safety data further support its current use and applications. On the development side, the outcomes of the...

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September 2018

Structural Damage Progression in Patients with Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Treated with Methotrexate, Baricitinib, or Baricitinib plus Methotrexate Based on Clinical Response in the Phase 3 RA-BEGIN Study

Clinical Rheumatology 2018;37:2381–90 DOI 10.1007/s10067-018-4221-0

Patients with active RA and little or no prior DMARD treatment, who achieved sustained clinical responses, were less likely to show structural damage progression, irrespective of treatment.RA-BEGIN was a 52-week double-blind, multicentre Phase 3 trial, which assessed the safety and efficacy of BARI as monotherapy or in combination with MTX versus MTX monotherapy, in RA patients with no or limited prior DMARDs use.1-4 This post-hoc analysis evaluated the structural damage progression in patients ...

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August 2018

Two Years of Sarilumab in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis and an Inadequate Response to MTX: Safety, Efficacy and Radiographic Outcomes

Rheumatology 2018;57:1423–1431 DOI: 10.1093/rheumatology/key121

Two-year treatment of active, moderate-to-severe RA with sarilumab, along with dose reduction in the event of laboratory abnormalities, resulted in durable efficacy outcomes and a safety profile consistent with previous reports involving IL-6R inhibition. Durable long-term safety and efficacy, reduced joint damage progression, and conserving health-related quality of life and work productivity are important goals of therapy in RA.1 Sarilumab significantly reduced disease activity, improved physi...

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June 2018

Effects of Baricitinib on Radiographic Progression of Structural Joint Damage at 1 year in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis and an Inadequate Response to Conventional Synthetic Disease-modifying Antirheumatic Drugs

RMD Open. 2018 May 8;4(1):e000662. DOI: 10.1136/rmdopen-2018-000662

Once daily baricitinib (BARI) inhibited radiographic progression of structural joint damage in patients with an inadequate response or intolerance to csDMARDs over 48 weeks.Current treatment goals aim to use DMARDs to inhibit structural joint damage and prevent long-term functional disability. In RA-BUILD¹, BARI was shown to significantly reduce radiographic joint damage progression in patients with active RA, with an intolerance or inadequate response to csDMARDs. Here, the authors report the l...

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Long-term Radiographic and Patient-reported Outcomes in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis Treated with Tofacitinib: ORAL Start and ORAL Scan Post-hoc Analyses

Rheumatol Ther. 2018 Dec;5(2):341-353. doi: 10.1007/s40744-018-0113-7

Tofacitinib (TOF) therapy reduced the progression of structural joint damage at 2 years, in patients of all disease states, compared with patients given methotrexate (MTX). Early intervention with DMARDs aim to prevent the development of future RA symptoms and inhibit the progression of structural damage to the joints. This post-hoc analysis uses data from two Phase 3 TOF studies, to examine the efficacy of early intervention with TOF on long-term radiographic outcomes and disease activity state...

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May 2018

Evaluation of Disease Activity in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis Treated with Tofacitinib by RAPID3: Post Hoc Analyses from Two Phase 3 Trials

Clin Rheumatol 2018 Aug; 37(8):2043–53

Patients given tofacitinib (TOF) who achieved Routine Assessment of Patient Index Data 3 (RAPID3) remission or low disease activity (LDA) at 6 months, had improved long-term outcomes at 2 years, compared to patients with moderate or high disease activity (MDA/HDA) at 6 months.RAPID3¹ is a patient-reported evaluation of disease activity, based on pooled PROs; patient global assessment, patient assessment of arthritic pain and HAQ-DI scores. Previous studies with tocilizumab have suggested that RA...

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February 2018

Radiographic Joint Damage in Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients: Comparing Tocilizumab- and Methotrexate-based Treat-to-target Strategies

Rheumatology (Oxford) 2018; 57(2):309–17

Tocilizumab (TCZ) therapy in DMARD-naïve patients with RA, is more effective at reducing erosion progression, particularly in the feet, compared with treat-to-target methotrexate (MTX) therapy. This analysis looked at radiographic joint damage, including separate examination of erosion progression and joint space narrowing (JSN) in the hands and feet of patients enrolled in the U-Act-Early trial. Radiographic damage is a common symptom of RA, with treat-to-target strategies aimed at preventing ...

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Professor Iain McInnes Reviews the Most Important Papers from 2017

Please click the links below to go to the CSF review of each paper.

2017 was a successful year for rheumatoid arthritis research, with some key advances in JAK inhibitors and IL-6 inhibitors, as outlined below. - Tofacitinib was suggested as a potential treatment for psoriatic arthritis, and NICE recommended tofacitinib as a treatment for moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis - Baricitinib studies supported the potential use of baricitinib as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis - Filgotinib Phase 2 studies suggested that filgotinib could be effective a...

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December 2017

Effect of Glucocorticoids on the Clinical and Radiographic Efficacy of Tofacitinib in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Posthoc Analysis of Data from 6 Phase III studies

J Rheumatol 2018 Feb; 45(2):177-87

In this post hoc analysis, six Phase 3 studies were used to analyse the effect of glucocorticoids (GC) on the efficacy of tofacitinib (TOF) in patients with RA. Concomitant use of GC did not affect the clinical or radiographic outcomes of patients treated with TOF. Data from all six clinical trials were evaluated, with four studies (ORAL Scan, ORAL Standard, ORAL Sync and ORAL Step) being pooled for analysis. In these studies, MTX was used as a comparison and patients were required to maintain a...

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