Long-term safety and effectiveness of tocilizumab in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and inadequate responses to csDMARDs and/or TNF inhibitors: an open-label study close to clinical practice. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • OBJECTIVE: To assess the long-term safety, tolerability, and effectiveness of tocilizumab (TCZ) as monotherapy or in combination with conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARDs) in clinical practice in patients with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: Patients in the 24-week, open-label ACT-SURE study who had at least a moderate EULAR response by week 24 and were from a participating country were eligible for this long-term extension (LTE); the patients continued to receive TCZ 8 mg/kg intravenously every 4 weeks as monotherapy or in combination with ≥ 1 csDMARD for up to an additional 108 weeks. The primary endpoint was the incidence of adverse events (AEs) and serious AEs (SAEs). Effectiveness endpoints included Disease Activity Score in 28 joints (DAS28) responses, American College of Rheumatology (ACR) responses, and patient-reported outcomes (PROs). RESULTS: Of the 1102 patients who completed the core 24-week study, 934 participated in the LTE; the median exposure to TCZ was 64.3 weeks. From baseline to the end of the LTE, AEs and SAEs occurred in 90% and 9% of patients, respectively. The overall event rates (95% CI) of AEs and SAEs were 406.5 per 100 patient-years (PY) (395.5, 417.8) and 8.8 per 100 PY (7.3, 10.6), respectively. Mean (SD) improvement in DAS28 was 4.12 (1.18), P < 0.0001. The DAS28 remission rates, ACR response rates, and PRO scores were maintained during the LTE study. CONCLUSION: In clinical practice, TCZ as monotherapy or in combination with csDMARDs was safe, well tolerated, and efficacious in patients with moderate to severe RA.

authors

  • Bykerk, Vivian Patricia
  • Östör, Andrew J K
  • Alvaro-Gracia, José
  • Pavelka, Karel
  • Román Ivorra, José Andrés
  • Nurmohamed, Michael T
  • Luder, Yves
  • Sidiropoulos, Paris N M
  • Devenport, Jenny
  • Sibilia, Jean

publication date

  • April 26, 2019

Research

keywords

  • Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized
  • Antirheumatic Agents
  • Arthritis, Rheumatoid
  • Glucocorticoids
  • Tumor Necrosis Factor Inhibitors

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 85065016568

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1007/s10067-019-04535-z

PubMed ID

  • 31028551

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 38

issue

  • 9