Sustained remission following the discontinuation of tofacitinib in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (XANADU study): an open-label randomised study.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

To investigate sustained remission following the discontinuation of tofacitinib in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

METHODS:

Patients who had an inadequate response to methotrexate (MTX) with or without biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs were randomly divided into two groups at baseline, and tofacitinib treatment in combination with MTX was administered to both groups. Either MTX or tofacitinib was then withdrawn if patients achieved Clinical Disease Activity Index remission at week 52. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients who sustained clinical remission at week 104.

RESULTS:

A total of 113 patients participated in this study. Among them, a total of 48 patients achieved remission at week 52. After discontinuation of tofacitinib, only 29.2% (7/24) of patients remained remission, while 50.0% (10/20) of patients, which was numerically higher but not statistically significant, sustained remission after MTX discontinuation. A greater proportion of bio-naïve patients achieved remission at week 52 and sustained low disease activity with tofacitinib discontinuation at week 104. Additionally, the patients who were able to discontinue tofacitinib without flares had lower rheumatoid factor (p=0.04) and lower anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody (p=0.051) before discontinuation of tofacitinib. No severe adverse events were recorded after discontinuation of tofacitinib or MTX. In patients who relapsed after tofacitinib discontinuation, 71.4% achieved remission with resumption of tofacitinib.

CONCLUSIONS:

This study implies that a blanket cessation of tofacitinib may not be suitable for all patients, given that 58% of the participants experienced relapse. However, the withdrawal of tofacitinib is unlikely to result in the acquisition of treatment-resistance.

• Authors: Satoshi Kubo, Yusuke Miyazaki, Koichi Amano, Kiyoshi Matsui, Hideto Kameda, Yoshino Inoue, Shingo Nakayamada, Takehisa Ogura, Yuko Kaneko, Kunihiro Yamaoka, Yoshiya Tanaka
• Journal: RMD open (RMD Open) Vol. 9 Issue 2 (04 2023) ISSN: 2056-5933 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 37185309 (Publication Type: Randomized Controlled Trial, Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
• Copyright: © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.

Chemical References

• tofacitinib
• Antirheumatic Agents
• Methotrexate
• Piperidines

Topics

• Humans
• Arthritis, Rheumatoid (diagnosis, drug therapy, chemically induced)
• Antirheumatic Agents (adverse effects)
• Methotrexate (adverse effects)
• Piperidines (adverse effects)