BackgroundFor rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the treat-to-target concept suggests attaining remission or at least low disease activity (LDA) after 12 weeks.ObjectivesThis German, prospective, multicenter, non-interventional study aimed to determine the proportion of patients with RA who achieved their treat-to-target aim after 12 and 24 weeks of etanercept (ETN) treatment in a real-life setting, as opposed to patients achieving their therapeutic target at a later timepoint (week 36 or 52).MethodsA total of 824 adults with a confirmed diagnosis of RA without prior ETN treatment were included. Remission and LDA were defined as DAS28 < 2.6 and DAS28 ≤ 3.2, respectively.ResultsThe proportion of patients achieving remission was 24% at week 12 and 31% at week 24. The proportion of patients achieving LDA was 39% at week 12 and 45% at week 24. The proportion of patients achieving remission or LDA further increased beyond week 24 up to week 52. Improvement in pain and reduction in concomitant glucocorticoid treatment were observed. Improvements in patient-reported outcomes were also seen in patients who did not reach remission or LDA. No new safety signals were detected.ConclusionsA considerable proportion of patients with RA attained the target of remission or LDA after 12 weeks of ETN treatment. Even beyond that timepoint, the proportion of patients achieving treatment targets continued to increase up to week 52.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02486302.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40744-021-00418-5.
Read full abstract