Tofacitinib for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis: a real-world study in China

Intern Emerg Med. 2021 Sep 24. doi: 10.1007/s11739-021-02852-3. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTTofacitinib has only been available in China for 2 years to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Our purpose was to compare real-world effectiveness of tofacitinib with that of disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) in Chinese patients with RA. The records of patients with RA treated at Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital between July 2017 and September 2019 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were divided into those treated with tofacitinib, biological DMARDs (bDMARDs), and conventional synthetic DMARDs (csDMARDs). Clinical disease activity index (CDAI), simplified disease activity index (SDAI), health assessment questionnaire-disability index (HAQ-DI), visual analog scale (VAS) pain score, patient global assessment of disease activity (PtGA), physician global assessment of disease activity (PhGA), and swollen joint and tender joint count were compared among the groups up to 12 months of treatment. A total of 150 patients were included: 63 were treated with tofacitinib, 48 with bDMARDs, and 39 with csDMARDs. Tofacitinib was first-line treatment in 26.98% of patients, second-line treatment in 49.21%, and third-line treatment in 26.98%. Patients in the tofacitinib group had significantly higher disease duration (6.11 ± 6.97 years) than those in the other groups. All disease indices in the three groups decreased with time, indicating improvement of symptoms, with no differ...
Source: Pain Physician - Category: Anesthesiology Authors: Source Type: research