Biologics have transformed the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Clinical remission is now the goal. We sought to verify whether the administration of tocilizumab-a biologic-can help to achieve current treatment goals.
Using data from the Tsurumai Biologics Communication Registry for 122 patients treated with tocilizumab, we evaluated changes in DAS28-ESR at 12 months after initiation, and also evaluated remission rates defined using conventional and new Boolean-based remission criteria. We divided 50 patients who had received tocilizumab as a first-line treatment into two groups [disease duration at baseline of 12 months or less (≤12 M) and more than 12 months (>12 M)].
At 12 months after initiation, there was no difference in DAS28-ESR, and remission rates based on the conventional criterion were also comparable (50 % in both groups). However, under the new criterion, remission was 50.0 % in the ≤12 M group against 12.5 % in the >12 M group (p = 0.0181). Among the individual components of the new remission criterion, the small proportion of patients in the >12 M group with a patient global assessment (PtGA) of ≤1 had a particularly strong influence on the remission rate for that group, but this component was not as important for the ≤12 M group.
When used as a first-line biological drug for patients with early-stage RA (≤12 M), tocilizumab appears to provide high rates of remission under the Boolean-based remission criterion, which were strongly affected by the PtGA.