Influence on effectiveness of early treatment with anti-TNF therapy in rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

<i>Purpose</i>. To evaluate the association between starting early treatment with anti-TNF and effectiveness as well as the possibility of applying therapeutic spacing in daily practice in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). <i>Methods</i>. Observational, retrospective study conducted in two universitary hospitals in Spain. RA patients who received the first anti-TNF (adalimumab: ADA, etanercept: ETN or infliximab: IFX) during the study period (October 2006-2010) were included. Demographic data, time since diagnosis, disease activity (DAS28-ESR) and anti-TNF dosage were analyzed. Therapeutic objective was defined as DAS28<2.6. Also the response related to criteria of the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) was evaluated. Therapeutic spacing was defined as the use of a lower dose or a higher interval according to label doses. The main endpoint was to assess the association between the effectiveness and the moment when the anti-TNF therapy begins. The secondary target was to evaluate the association between RA activity at the beginning of treatment with anti-TNF and dose used. <i>Results</i>. 82 patients were included. The prescription profile was: ADA (48.8%), ETN (31.7%) and IFX (19.5%). 71.4% of patients treated with anti-TNF during the first year since diagnosis, 57.1% of those who started after 1-5 years and 30.6% of patients who started after 5 years were in remission when the study ended. De-escalation strategy was performed in 25.6% of patients: ETN (38.5%), ADA (20.0%) and IFX (18.8%). The patients treated with a higher dose according to label doses were: IFX (81%), ADA, (12.5%) and ETN (7.7%). <i>Conclusions</i>. Results suggest that early treatment with anti-TNF can achieve a higher percentage of remissions. Therapeutic spacing is established as a strategy that improves the efficiency in those patients in remission, being the ETN the anti-TNF most susceptible for spacing, although a relation between the early beginning with anti-TNF and the used dose was not found.