More Data for Treat to Target: Post-Hoc Analysis of Large RA Clinical Trials Supports Treat-to-Target Recommendations

“Rheumatologists often discuss how much time they spend getting approval of medications,” he says. “We rheumatologists want early access for patients, we want them to recognize symptoms, we want an effective screening strategy to get those people who have a likelihood of inflammatory arthritis to us, and then we have to have the time to evaluate them and educate them. [A diagnosis of RA] is a big change in someone’s life.”

Disclosure of and education about this potentially long-lasting, serious condition cannot always be achieved in a 15-minute office visit, Dr. Pisetsky says. “I think we have to figure out ways to do a lot of work efficiently.”

Gretchen Henkel is a health and medical journalist based in California.

References

1. Smolen JS, van Vollenhoven RF, Florentinus S, et al. Predictors of disease activity and structural progression after treatment with adalimumab plus methotrexate or continued methotrexate monotherapy in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis and suboptimal response to methotrexate. Ann Rheum Dis. 2018 Nov;77(11):1566–1572.
2. Breedveld FC, Weisman MH, Kavanaugh AF, et al. The PREMIER study: A multicenter, randomized, double-blind clinical trial of combination therapy with adalimumab plus methotrexate versus methotrexate alone or adalimumab alone in patients with early, aggressive rheumatoid arthritis who had not had previous methotrexate treatment. Arthritis Rheum. 2006 Jan;54(1):26–37.
3. Kavanaugh A, Fleischmann RM, Emery P, et al. Clinical, functional and radiographic consequences of achieving stable low disease activity and remission with adalimumab plus methotrexate or methotrexate alone in early rheumatoid arthritis: 26-week results from the randomised, controlled OPTIMA study. Ann Rheum Dis. 2013 Jan;72(1):64–71.