Successful treatment of refractory adult-onset still’s disease with tocilizumab combined with methotre-xate:a retrospective study of 28 cases

Abstract

Objective To observe the efficacy and safety of tocilizumab combined with methotrexate (MTX) in the treatment of refractory adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD), and to explore whether it is possible to reduce the dose of tocilizumab when disease is under control. Methods Twenty-eight patients with refractory AOSD received the treatment of tocilizumab (8 mg/kg, Intravenous infusion every 4 weeks, and reduced to 8 mg/kg every 8 weeks after 6 months of remission) combined with MTX(12.5 mg oral intake per week). The clinical efficacy, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), ferritin level and dose change of glucocorticoid (GC) were observed prior to treatment initiation and 2, 4, 8, 12, 24, 36, 48 weeks after treatment. All adverse reactions were recorded. The Chi-square test and repetitive measure analysis of variance were used for statistical analysis. Results Compared with the baseline levels, our results showed that after 8-weeks of treatment with tocilizumab all patients had normal body temperature, while skin rash, joint swelling and pain disappeared. CRP [(125.4±48.3) mg/L, (6.1±2.5) mg/L vs (4.9±1.8) mg/L, F=77.034, P<0.01], ESR [(103±31) mm/1 h, (17±7) mm/1 h vs (16±4) mm/1 h, F=55.73, P<0.01], white blood cells count [(18.1±5.3)×109/L, (8.2±2.9)×109/L vs (7.2±2.1)×109/L, F=24.71, P<0.01], neutrophils count [(16.7±4.9)×109/L, (6.1±2.2)×109/L vs(4.9±2.3)×109/L, F=35.295, P<0.01], blood platelets [(312±83)×109/L, (199±40)×109/L vs (204±47)×109/L, F=7.139, P<0.01], hemoglobin [(100±9) g/L, (116±9) g/L vs (277±102) g/L, F=9.852, P<0.01], ferritin level [(3 542±1 313) ng/ml, (2 342±923) ng/ml vs (277±102) ng/ml) , F=34.232, P<0.01] were improved significantly, clinical symptoms and laboratory tests continued to improve at week 12, 24, 36 and 48, the dose of prednisone was reduced from (71.4±20.7) mg/d to (55.0±11.1) mg/d (P<0.05) After 2 weeks, and the dosage was gradually reduced to 3.3±2.1 mg/d (P<0.05) at the end of 48 weeks. Five (17.9%) patients discontinued prednisone after 36 weeks, and 7(25%) patients at week 48, no serious adverse events were found during the treatment. Conclusion Tocilizumab can rapidly and significantly improve clinical symptoms and laboratory tests of patients with refractory AOSD and it also can help with the reduction of GC dosage. In addition, the disease remains stable after the dose reduction of tombuzumab. The safety profile is good. Key words: Still's disease, adult-onset; Ttombuzumab; Methotrexate; Therapy