RESEARCH - Biologics appear safe after rituximab in advanced RA

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Biological Therapies Appear Safe After Rituximab in Advanced RA

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Dec 28 - Patients with advanced rheumatoid

arthritis (RA) can be treated with biological disease-modifying

anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARD) after receiving rituximab therapy,

without an increase in serious infections, research suggests.

Even when biological DMARD therapy is started in patients with B-cell

depletion in their peripheral blood, " the rate and nature of serious

infection events remain consistent with those observed during

rituximab treatment and within expectations for patients treated with

biological therapies, " the research team reports in the ls of the

Rheumatic Diseases for December.

" Given the multiple RA therapies with different mechanisms of action,

the safety of switching among different biological agents,

particularly with regard to the rate of infection, is an important

consideration, " Dr. M. C. Genovese, from Stanford University Medical

Center, Palo Alto, California, and colleagues note in their report.

They studied 2578 RA patients from an international rituximab clinical

trial. All were treated with at least one course of rituximab during

the study, and 185 patients received another biological DMARD,

including 153 (81%) who received tumor necrosis factor (TNF)

inhibitors.

At the time of further RA treatment, 88.6% of patients had peripheral

B-cell depletion.

According to the investigators, 13 serious infection events occurred

in 12 patients (6.99 events per 100 patient-years) after rituximab

therapy but before initiation of another biological DMARD. Ten serious

infection events occurred in 10 patients (5.49 events per 100

patient-years) following initiation of another biological agent.

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Read the full article here:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/714365

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