September 2022

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.

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July 2022

Factors Associated with Drug-free Remission at 5-year in Early Onset Axial Spondyloarthritis Patients: Data from the DESIR Cohort

Joint Bone Spine. 2022 doi.org/10.1016/j.jbspin.2022.105358

This study from Ruyssen-Witrand et al, highlights that the probability of being in drug free remission at 5-year in patients with recent onset of axSpA is low. The study was performed to investigate the possible association between demographic, clinical, biological and imaging characteristics and drug-free remission at 5 years.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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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.

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Ixekizumab in radiographic axial spondyloarthritis with and without elevated C-reactive protein or positive magnetic resonance imaging

Rheumatology Expert, 2022 DOI: 10.1093/rheumatology/keac104

Maksymowych et al., evaluated the efficacy of Ixekizumab in patients with radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (r-axSpA) with and without objective measures of inflammation.

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Effects of anti-TNF-therapy on inflammatory, structural and osteoblastic activity lesions in radiographic axial spondyloarthritis - a prospective proof-of-concept study using PET/MRI of SIJ and spine

Arthritis Rheumatol. 2022 doi: 10.1002/art.42149

Bruckmann et al carried out this observational, proof of concept study to analyse the effect anti-TNF-therapy (TNFi) on inflammatory, structural, and osteoblastic activity lesions in radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (r-axSpA).  

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