Advances in rheumatoid arthritis

Jones, Graeme; Nash, Peter; Hall, Stephen

ARTICLE
AUTHORS
REFERENCES
RESPONSES

Summary

There are now eight approved biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs), two biosimilars and one targeted synthetic DMARD in Australia with a number of new products and biosimilars in the pipeline.
bDMARDs have excellent efficacy, especially when combined with traditional DMARDs, and a well characterised but manageable safety profile.
These expanded therapeutic options have revolutionised patient care and made remission (including drug free remission) a realistic goal.
Evidence of a “window of opportunity” that changes the long term phenotype of the disease has been well established, so therapy should be commenced as early as possible in the disease process and a shared care model between general practitioner and rheumatologist provides the best outcomes.
While there is no cure for rheumatoid arthritis, treatment has improved to the point where many patients can achieve a normal quality of life.

Please login with your free MJA account to view this article in full

LOGIN

CREATE AN ACCOUNT

Graeme Jones¹
Peter Nash²
Stephen Hall³

1 Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS
2 Coast Joint Care, Maroochydore, QLD
3 Cabrini Medical Centre, Malvern, VIC

Correspondence: g.jones@utas.edu.au

Competing interests:

Graeme Jones receives funds from the National Health and Medical Research Council and is a speaker, consultant or clinical triallist for the following companies that make biological agentsSanofi-Aventis, AbbVie, Janssen, Pfizer, Roche, Eli Lilly, Amgen, Bristol–Myers Squibb and UCB. Peter Nash has received grants for research and clinical trials and honoraria for advice and lectures from AbbVie, Amgen, Bristol–Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Janssen, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi-Aventis and UCB. Stephen Hall has received grants for research and clinical trials and honoraria for advice and lectures from AbbVie, Bristol–Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Janssen, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche and UCB.

1. Aletaha D, Neogi T, Silman AJ, et al. 2010 Rheumatoid arthritis classification criteria: an American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism collaborative initiative. Ann Rheum Dis 2010; 69: 1580-1588.
2. Mikuls TR, Payne JB, Deane KD, Thiele GM. Autoimmunity of the lung and oral mucosa in a multisystem inflammatory disease: the spark that lights the fire in rheumatoid arthritis? J Allergy Clin Immunol 2016; 137: 28-34.
3. Yamamoto K, Okada Y, Suzuki A, Kochi Y. Genetics of rheumatoid arthritis in Asia—present and future. Nat Rev Rheumatol 2015; 11: 375-379.
4. Klareskog L, Gregersen PK, Huizinga TW. Prevention of autoimmune rheumatic disease: state of the art and future perspectives. Ann Rheum Dis 2010; 69: 2062-2066.
5. Tedeschi SK, Costenbader KH. Is there a role for diet in the therapy of rheumatoid arthritis? Curr Rheumatol Rep 2016; 18: 23.
6. Salgado E, Bes-Rastrollo M, de Irala J, et al. High sodium intake is associated with self-reported rheumatoid arthritis: a cross sectional and case control analysis within the SUN cohort. Medicine (Baltimore) 2015; 94: e92.
7. McInnes I, Schett G. Cytokines in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis. Nat Rev Immunol 2007; 7: 429-442.
8. Jones G, Halbert J, Crotty M, et al. The effect of treatment on radiological progression in rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic review of randomized placebo controlled trials. Rheumatology 2003; 42: 6-13.
9. Wasko MC, Dasgupta A, Hubert H, et al. Propensity-adjusted association of methotrexate with overall survival in rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Rheum 2013; 65: 334-342.
10. Chester Wasko M, Dasgupta A, Ilse Sears G, et al. Prednisone use and risk of mortality in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: moderation by use of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken) 2016; 68: 706-710.
11. O’Dell JR. Treating rheumatoid arthritis early: a window of opportunity? Arthritis Rheum 2002; 46: 283-285.
12. Soliman M, Ashcroft DM, Watson KD, et al. Impact of concomitant use of DMARDs on the persistence with anti-TNF therapies in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: results from the British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register. Ann Rheum Dis 2011; 70: 583-589.
13. Proudman SM, James MJ, Spargo LD et al. Fish oil in recent onset rheumatoid arthritis: a randomised, double-blind controlled trial within algorithm-based drug use. Ann Rheum Dis 2015; 74: 89-95.
14. Emery P, Breedveld FC, Hall S, et al. Comparison of methotrexate monotherapy with a combination of methotrexate and etanercept in active, early, moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis (COMET): a randomised, double-blind, parallel treatment trial. Lancet 2008; 372: 375-382.
15. Singh JA, Christensen R, Wells GA, et al. Biologics for rheumatoid arthritis: an overview of Cochrane reviews. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2009; (4): CD007848.
16. Taylor P, Keystone E, Van Der Heijde D, et al. Baricitinib versus placebo or adalimumab in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and an inadequate response to background methotrexate therapy: results of a phase 3 study. ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting. http://acrabstracts.org/abstract/baricitinib-versus-placebo-or-adalimumab-in-patients-with-active-rheumatoid-arthritis-ra-and-an-inadequate-response-to-background-methotrexate-therapy-results-of-a-phase-3-study/ (accessed Nov 2015).
17. Jones G, Sebba A, Gu J, et al. Comparison of tocilizumab monotherapy versus methotrexate monotherapy in patients with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. Ann Rheum Dis 2010; 69: 88-96.
18. Lee EB, Fleischmann R, Hall S, et al. Tofacitinib versus methotrexate in rheumatoid arthritis. N Engl J Med 2014; 370: 2377-2386.
19. Gottenberg J-E, Brocq O, Perdriger A, et al. Non–TNF-targeted biologic vs a second anti-TNF drug to treat rheumatoid arthritis in patients with insufficient response to a first anti-TNF drug: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA 2016; 316: 1172-1180.
20. Maneiro RJ, Salgado E, Carmona L, Gomez-Reino JJ. Rheumatoid factor as predictor of response to abatacept, rituximab and tocilizumab in rheumatoid arthritis: systematic review and meta-analysis. Semin Arthritis Rheum 2013; 43: 9-17.
21. Jones G, Ding C. Tocilizumab: a review of its safety and efficacy in rheumatoid arthritis. Clin Med Insights Arthritis Musculoskelet Disord 2010; 3: 81-89.
22. Kaine JL. Abatacept for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis: a review. Curr Ther Res Clin Exp 2007; 68: 379-399.
23. Dass S, Vital EM, Emery P. Rituximab: novel B-cell depletion therapy for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Expert Opin Pharmacother 2006; 7: 2559-2570.
24. Brown MA. Antibody treatments of inflammatory arthritis. Curr Med Chem 2005; 12: 2943-2946.
25. Tanaka Y. Recent progress and perspective in JAK inhibitors for rheumatoid arthritis: from bench to bedside. J Biochem 2015; 158: 173-179.
26. Singh JA, Cameron C, Noorbaloochi S, et al. Risk of serious infection in biological treatment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet 2015; 386: 258-265.
27. Dixon WG, Watson K, Lunt M, et al. Rates of serious infection, including site-specific and bacterial intracellular infection, in rheumatoid arthritis patients receiving anti-tumor necrosis factor therapy: Results from the British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register. Arthritis Rheum 2006; 54: 2368-2376.
28. van Assen S, Agmon-Levin N, Elkayam O, et al. EULAR recommendations for vaccination in adult patients with autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases. Ann Rheum Dis 2011; 70: 414-422.
29. Park W, Yoo DH, Jaworski J, et al. Comparable long-term efficacy, as assessed by patient-reported outcomes, safety and pharmacokinetics, of CT-P13 and reference infliximab in patients with ankylosing spondylitis: 54-week results from the randomized, parallel-group PLANETAS study. Arthritis Res Ther 2016; 20: 18.
30. Yoo DH, Racewicz A, Brzezicki J, et al. A phase III randomized study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of CT-P13 compared with reference infliximab in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis: 54-week results from the PLANETRA study. Arthritis Res Ther 2016; 18: 82.
31. Emery P, Vencovský J, Sylwestrzak A, et al. A phase III randomised, double-blind, parallel-group study comparing SB4 with etanercept reference product in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis despite methotrexate therapy. Ann Rheum Dis 2017; 76: 51-57.
32. Chingcuanco F, Segal J, Kim S, Alexander G. Bioequivalence of biosimilar tumor necrosis factor-α inhibitors compared with their reference biologics: a systematic review. Ann Intern Med 2016; 165: 565-574.
33. Hamilton JA. GM-CSF as a target in inflammatory/autoimmune disease: current evidence and future therapeutic potential. Expert Rev Clin Immunol 2015; 11: 457-465.
34. Benham H, Nel HJ, Law SC, et al. Citrullinated peptide dendritic cell immunotherapy in HLA risk genotype-positive rheumatoid arthritis patients. Sci Transl Med 2015; 7: 290ra87.

Responses are now closed for this article.

Advances in rheumatoid arthritis

Summary

Author

Comment

Do you have any competing interests to declare? *