July 2022

Efficacy and safety of ixekizumab in patients with active psoriatic arthritis with and without concomitant conventional disease‑modifying antirheumatic drugs: SPIRIT‑P1 and SPIRIT‑P2 3‑year results

Clin Rheumatol. 2022 doi: 10.1007/s10067-022-06218-8

In this investigation ixekizumab showed sustained efficacy in PsA therapy for up to three years in both monotherapy and combination with MTX or a csDMARD. Here, investigators set out to evaluate the three-year efficacy and safety of ixekizumab with and without csDMARD use in patients with active PsA.

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June 2022

Unincreased risk of hospitalized infection under targeted therapies versus methotrexate in elderly patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a retrospective cohort study

Arthritis Res Ther. 2022 doi: 10.1186/s13075-022-02807-9

Retrospective, longitudinal, population-based study shows that despite an overall higher incidence of hospitalised infection (HI) in both elderly and older elderly patients compared to young patients, the risks of HI in patients exposed to targeted therapy versus MTX is not significantly increased.

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.

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Treatment of rheumatoid arthritis with conventional, targeted and biological disease‑modifying antirheumatic drugs in the setting of liver injury and non‑alcoholic fatty liver disease

Rheumatol Int. 2022 doi: 10.1007/s00296-022-05143-y

An increased incidence of liver diseases emphasizes greater caution in prescribing antirheumatic drugs, owing to their hepatotoxicity. However, drug-induced liver injury (DILI) in RA patients represents an aetiological and therapeutic challenge, due to the intertwining of inflammatory and metabolic elements mediated by IL-6 and TNF-α.

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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.

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April 2022

Achieving pain control in early rheumatoid arthritis with baricitinib monotherapy or in combination with methotrexate versus methotrexate monotherapy

RMD Open. 2022;8(1):e001994 doi: 10.1136/rmdopen-2021-001994

Post hoc analysis of the RA-BEGIN trial finds that, over a one-year period, patients treated with baricitinib (monotherapy or in combination with methotrexate [MTX]) report greater pain relief and a more rapid attainment of clinically meaningful thresholds of pain improvement, than patients who receive MTX monotherapy.Often overlooked, when treating RA solely to a disease activity target, patient-reported pain is common in RA, even in those reaching inflammatory remission. The fact that pain per...

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Evaluation of response to 13-valent conjugated pneumococcal vaccination in patients with rheumatoid arthritis receiving upadacitinib: results from a phase 2 open-label extension study

RMD Open. 2022;8(1):e002110 doi: 10.1136/rmdopen-2021-002110

Vaccine sub-study of the BALANCE-EXTEND upadacitinib trial finds that approximately two-thirds of patients receiving upadacitinib 15 mg once-daily achieve a satisfactory humoral response to pneumococcal 13-valent conjugate (PCV-13) vaccine, despite receiving concomitant methotrexate (MTX).It is well known that a weakened immune response, comorbidities and immunosuppressant drug therapy all contribute to an increased susceptibility to infections in patients with RA. Likewise, the morbidity and mo...

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March 2022

Effectiveness of baricitinib and tofacitinib compared with bDMARDs in RA: results from a cohort study using nationwide Swedish register data

Rheumatology (Oxford). 2022. Epub ahead of print doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keac068

Data from the Swedish Rheumatology Quality Register and Swedish Registries, show a higher treatment retention and overall equivalent or better treatment response on baricitinib, compared with bDMARDs or tofacitinib, but no statistically significant differences between tofacitinib and bDMARDs.In this largest population-based study to date, comparing RA patients initiating baricitinib, tofacitinib or bDMARDs, Barbulescu, et al. help to fill some of the current knowledge gaps surrounding the effica...

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December 2021

Highlights of 2021

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

I’m sure we’d all hoped that this year would be a return to normal but, in the midst of the challenges we’ve faced with COVID-19, the rheumatology community has continued to deliver excellent publications, and we’ve covered many of these on the CSF. Here are my highlights from 2021's publications: Points to Consider for the Treatment of Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Diseases With Janus Kinase Inhibitors: A Co...

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October 2021

Efficacy and safety of tofacitinib versus baricitinib in patients with rheumatoid arthritis in real clinical practice: analyses with propensity score-based inverse probability of treatment weighting

Ann Rheum Dis. 2021;80(9):1130-1136

Propensity score-based inverse probability of treatment weighting shows that efficacy may differ between tofacitinib and baricitinib. Miyazaki, et al. compared the efficacy and safety of the two JAK inhibitors in real-world clinical practice, after reduction to a minimum of the selection bias, using propensity score-based inverse probability of treatment weighting, and adjustment for confounding patient characteristics. They found that tofacitinib may be less effective in patients resistant to m...

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