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Real‐world effectiveness and safety of rituximab in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis: A single‐center experience in Taiwan
Author(s) -
Wang KaiChun,
Liao HsienTzung,
Chen WeiSheng,
Lai ChienChih,
Chou ChungTei,
Chen MingHan,
Tsai ChangYouh
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
international journal of rheumatic diseases
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.795
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1756-185X
pISSN - 1756-1841
DOI - 10.1111/1756-185x.13511
Subject(s) - medicine , rituximab , rheumatoid arthritis , concomitant , rheumatism , erythrocyte sedimentation rate , adverse effect , methotrexate , single center , odds ratio , multivariate analysis , gastroenterology , surgery , lymphoma
Aim To assess the real‐world effectiveness and safety of rituximab (RTX) at 24 months in patients with established rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and to identify predictors of low disease activity/remission and a good European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) response. Methods Seventy RTX‐treated RA patients were enrolled. Predictors for low disease activity/remission and a good EULAR response at 24 months were identified by multivariate analyses. Results At 24 months, the mean Disease Activity Score of 28 joints—erythrocyte sedimentation rate (DAS28‐ESR) decreased from 6.88 ± 0.85 at baseline to 3.47 ± 0.85. Twenty‐nine patients (41.4%) reached low disease activity/remission, while all patients had a moderate/good EULAR response. After adjustment by multivariate analyses, we found concomitant methotrexate at a dosage >10 mg/week (odds ratio [OR] 5.17; 95% CI 1.34‐19.93; P = 0.017) predicted low disease activity/remission, and baseline DAS28 ≤6.5 (OR 4.97; 95% CI 1.22‐20.30; P = 0.026) predicted good EULAR response at 24 months. The most common adverse events were infusion‐related (5.7%), and there was no incidence of malignancy or mortality during the treatment. Conclusions RTX was effective and safe in real‐life management of RA patients with high disease activity. Patients taking concomitant methotrexate and with lower baseline DAS28‐ESR were more likely to benefit from RTX.