Re: Survival Benefit For RA Patients Taking Methotrexate Therapy

[Guest guest]

Dear a,

You are awesome! Thanks so very, very much for

forwarding this article. It has really lifted a

burden from my mind. Heart disease is something I

worry about because my grandfather had a heart attack

before he was 60. He was lucky and lived another 20

years. I don't know what would have happened to my

father because he died at 49 of Leukemia.

It would be nice if the printout that the pharmacy and

the doctor give you would site some of these positives

from taking this medication.

Thanks again, Iris

--- a <paula54@...> wrote:

> Survival Benefit For RA Patients Taking Methotrexate

> Therapy

> 10/04/2002

>

> There are a number of effective treatments for

> rheumatoid arthritis that

> improve arthritis symptoms and decrease the

> destruction of joints affected

> by the disease. Of these, methotrexate is the most

> frequently prescribed

> 3disease-modifying2 therapy. Increasingly, however,

> researchers are studying

> the long-term consequences of RA on overall health.

> Rheumatoid arthritis

> often affects many parts of the body other than the

> joints. There is now

> evidence that people with RA have increased rates of

> heart disease,

> infections and certain types of cancer. Overall,

> these illnesses contribute

> to poor health and even a decrease in overall life

> expectancy for people

> with RA. Thus, while the benefits of methotrexate

> for arthritis symptoms are

> well known, it has remained unclear if this, or any

> treatment for RA, can

> improve overall health and lead to a normal life

> expectancy. 

>

> To address the question of whether RA therapy can

> impact life expectancy, a

> group of researchers tracked RA patients over an

> extended period of time‹an

> average of six years‹and compared life expectancy

> for those receiving

> methotrexate with those not taking methotrexate.

> Their findings were

> reported in a recent publication in the journal

> Lancet1.  In all, they

> studied 1,240 patients over two decades, from 1981

> to 1999.  Approximately

> half of these patients were treated with

> methotrexate.  In general, those

> patients who took methotrexate tended to have more

> severe disease activity.

>

> Analysis of life expectancy demonstrated a

> significant impact from treatment

> with methotrexate: patients taking methotrexate had

> a 60% reduction in

> mortality, after adjusting for disease severity. 

> Notably, deaths due to

> heart disease were reduced by 70% in patient on

> methotrexate. This survival

> increase was specific for methotrexate and was not

> seen in patients treated

> with other medications used in the study (including

> sulfasalazine,

> penicillamine, hydroxychloroquine and gold).

>

> From these results, the researchers suggest that in

> addition to providing

> effective treatment for arthritis, methotrexate may

> provide a substantial

> benefit to overall health for RA patients,

> particularly in regard to

> cardiovascular disease. The authors caution that

> despite the length and size

> of this study, it has some limitations. 

> Nonetheless, these findings provide

> useful information for patients and physicians

> regarding the long-term

> benefits of the most commonly prescribed medication

> for RA.

>

> Reference:

>

> 1  Choi, H.K. et. al.  3Methotrexate and mortality

> in patients with

> rheumatoid arthritis:  a prospective study.2  2002. 

> Lancet  359:1173.

>

> http://www.veritasmedicine.com/d_home.cfm

>

>

>