Video: Every Case Tells a Story| Webinar: ACR/CHEST ILD Guidelines in Practice

An official publication of the ACR and the ARP serving rheumatologists and rheumatology professionals

  • Conditions
    • Axial Spondyloarthritis
    • Gout and Crystalline Arthritis
    • Myositis
    • Osteoarthritis and Bone Disorders
    • Pain Syndromes
    • Pediatric Conditions
    • Psoriatic Arthritis
    • Rheumatoid Arthritis
    • Sjögren’s Disease
    • Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
    • Systemic Sclerosis
    • Vasculitis
    • Other Rheumatic Conditions
  • FocusRheum
    • ANCA-Associated Vasculitis
    • Axial Spondyloarthritis
    • Gout
    • Psoriatic Arthritis
    • Rheumatoid Arthritis
    • Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
  • Guidance
    • Clinical Criteria/Guidelines
    • Ethics
    • Legal Updates
    • Legislation & Advocacy
    • Meeting Reports
      • ACR Convergence
      • Other ACR meetings
      • EULAR/Other
    • Research Rheum
  • Drug Updates
    • Analgesics
    • Biologics/DMARDs
  • Practice Support
    • Billing/Coding
    • EMRs
    • Facility
    • Insurance
    • QA/QI
    • Technology
    • Workforce
  • Opinion
    • Patient Perspective
    • Profiles
    • Rheuminations
      • Video
    • Speak Out Rheum
  • Career
    • ACR ExamRheum
    • Awards
    • Career Development
  • ACR
    • ACR Home
    • ACR Convergence
    • ACR Guidelines
    • Journals
      • ACR Open Rheumatology
      • Arthritis & Rheumatology
      • Arthritis Care & Research
    • From the College
    • Events/CME
    • President’s Perspective
  • Search

Biomarkers in Rheumatoid Arthritis Remain Elusive

Kathy Holliman  |  Issue: February 2015  |  February 1, 2015

According to Dr. Rigby, the greatest application of Vectra is for predicting people with poor outcomes or for predicting that a patient is in low disease activity even when they are still reporting lots of symptoms. The big question in a patient with painful hands but no swelling is whether the patient’s “amplification of pain pathways is talking or whether it is the synovial inflammation talking. Some say Vectra is very good at that. Others would say why not do musculoskeletal ultrasound of that particular joint and confirm the inflammation.”

But of course the problem remains that, even if it is the inflammation talking, there is still no biomarker that can predict the best treatment for the patient whose disease does not respond adequately to methotrexate or even triple therapy.

ad goes here:advert-1
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

The search for the holy grail in RA is a complex one, but one worth doing, Dr. Kremer says. “The stakes are so high. People are suffering with a chronic lifelong disease, and these interventions are very expensive. In fact, the Corrona data show that 55–60% of all RA patients in the U.S. are on some type of biologic drug. In an era of shrinking resources for these expensive drugs, it would save society a lot of money if individuals can be identified up front as better or worse candidates for a particular intervention.”


Kathy Holliman is a medical journalist based in Beverly, Mass.

ad goes here:advert-2
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

References

  1. Robinson WH, Lindstrom TM, Cheung RK, Sokolove J. Mechanistic biomarkers for clinical decision making in rheumatic diseases. Nat Rev Rheumatol. 2013;9:267–276.
  2. Dennis G Jr., Holweg CTJ, Kummerfield SK, et al. Arthritis Res Ther. 2014;16:R90;1–18.
  3. Snyder A, Makarov V, Merghoub T, et al. Genetic basis for clinical response to CTLA-4 blockade in Melanoma. N Engl J Med. 2014. Doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1406498.

Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 | Single Page
Share: 

Filed under:ConditionsRheumatoid Arthritis Tagged with:BiomarkersHollimanRheumatoid arthritis

Related Articles

    Biomarkers to Guide Diagnosis, Treatment of Rheumatic Diseases

    January 1, 2015

    Examining the usefulness, drawbacks of current biomarkers in rheumatology and progress to develop better ones

    Progress Slow in Development of Useful Biomarkers for Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment

    September 8, 2016

    LONDON—Josef Smolen, MD, chair of rheumatology at the University of Vienna and former president of the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR), expressed a “personal disappointment” in the development of useful biomarkers in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Even though a good portion of his life’s work has been researching biomarkers to help with targeting…

    9 Steps to Transform Your Rheumatology Practice

    August 12, 2020

    The ACR position statement on access to care proposes the goal that “… all patients have timely access to expert rheuma­tology care … .”1 The reality is that new and established rheumatology patient wait times are often prolonged, causing delays in necessary diagnosis and treatment. The 2005 and 2015 ACR Workforce studies document intractable and…

    TNF Blockade for SLE

    September 1, 2010

    Reckless approach versus missed opportunity?

  • About Us
  • Meet the Editors
  • Issue Archives
  • Contribute
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Copyright © 2025 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial technologies or similar technologies. ISSN 1931-3268 (print). ISSN 1931-3209 (online).
  • DEI Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Cookie Preferences