Combining Tocilizumab with DMARDs for RA Facilitates Efficacy

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients experience pain relief and activity improvement as early as one week of therapy, when treated with a combination of tocilizumab and disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs). This is a significant improvement over the minimum two-week wait period using tocilizumab treatment alone.

The report comes from rheumatologists at New York University Hospital for Joint Diseases, who analyzed data from a subset of participants with moderate-to-severe RA in the 24-week Rapid Onset and Systemic Efficacy study (ROSE). Rather than collecting data every 4 weeks from patients receiving either 8 mg/kg  tocilizumab plus DMARDs or placebo plus DMARDs, 62 participants (40 on drug therapy, 22 on placebo) agreed to be tested in the first week.

The tests included blood sampling at days 3 and 7 of therapy, as well as pain scoring and clinical evaluation. All patients showed C-reactive protein levels > 1 mg/dl at baseline.

By no later than day 7, those on the combination tocilizumab/DMARDs infusion showed significant improvement in pain and disease activity score using 28 joints (DAS28). Another benefit: Results manifested sooner than those generally obtained through physician-reported measures.




The results are reported in Clin Exp Rheumatol
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23305631]