ArticleClinical rheumatology2020
Drug retention of secondary biologics or JAK inhibitors after tocilizumab or abatacept failure as first biologics in patients with rheumatoid arthritis -the ANSWER cohort study.
Article in Clinical rheumatology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- The role of sequential biologic therapy in rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of efficacy, safety, and predictive factors.Clinical rheumatology · 2025Pooled it
- Real-world effectiveness of biological therapy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: Systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2022Pooled it
- Choosing the next option: a scenario-based roadmap for b/tsDMARD sequencing in rheumatoid arthritis.Clinical rheumatology · 2026Review
- Japanese evidence on Janus kinase inhibitors for rheumatoid arthritis: a narrative review of risk-optimized use.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Review
- Real-world study comparing the efficacy of Janus kinase inhibitors in patients with difficult-to-treat rheumatoid arthritis.Clinical rheumatology · 2024Article
- Predictors of Drug Retention and Survival Rate of bDMARDs in Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Four-Year Real-Life Tunisian Experience.Mediterranean journal of rheumatology · 2024Article
- Effects of IL-6, JAK, TNF inhibitors, and CTLA4-Ig on knee symptoms in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Four-years retention rate of golimumab administered after discontinuation of non-TNF inhibitors in patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases.Advances in rheumatology (London, England) · 2023Article
- Factors affecting drug retention of Janus kinase inhibitors in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: the ANSWER cohort study.Scientific reports · 2022Observational
- Drug retention of sarilumab, baricitinib, and tofacitinib in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: the ANSWER cohort study.Clinical rheumatology · 2021Article
- Comparison of efficacy between anti-IL-6 receptor antibody and other biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs in the patients with rheumatoid arthritis who have knee joint involvement: the ANSWER cohort, retrospective study.Rheumatology international · 2021Article
- Toward Overcoming Treatment Failure in Rheumatoid Arthritis.Frontiers in immunology · 2021Review
- Drug retention of 7 biologics and tofacitinib in biologics-naïve and biologics-switched patients with rheumatoid arthritis: the ANSWER cohort study.Arthritis research & therapy · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
17 authors at 8 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesThe aim of this multicenter, retrospective study was to clarify the retention of secondary biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) or Janus kinase inhibitors (JAKi) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who were primarily treated by tocilizumab (TCZ) or abatacept (ABT) as first bDMARDs.
methodPatients who were treated by either TCZ (n = 145) or ABT (n = 76) and then switched to either tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi), TCZ, ABT, or JAKi (including only cases switched from TCZ) from 2001 to 2019 (female 81.0%, age 59.5 years, disease duration 8.8 years; rheumatoid factor positivity 75.4%; Disease Activity Score in 28 joints using C-reactive protein 3.7; concomitant prednisolone (PSL) dose 6.0 mg/day (51.8%) and methotrexate (MTX) dose 8.0 mg/week (56.1%); 81.9% discontinued first bDMARDs due to lack of effectiveness) were included. Drug retention and discontinuation reasons were estimated at 24 months using the Kaplan-Meier method and adjusted for potential confounders by Cox proportional hazards modeling.
resultsDrug retentions for each of the reasons for discontinuation were as follows: lack of effectiveness in TCZ-switched group (TNFi (59.5%), ABT (82.2%), and JAKi (84.3%); TNFi vs. ABT; P = 0.009) and ABT-switched group (TNFi (79.6%) and TCZ (92.6%); P = 0.053). Overall retention excluding non-toxic reasons and remission for discontinuation were TNFi (49.9%), ABT (72.7%), and JAKi (72.6%) (TNFi vs. ABT; P = 0.017) in the TCZ-switched group and TNFi (69.6%) and TCZ (72.4%) (P = 0.44) in the ABT-switched group.
conclusionsSwitching to ABT in TCZ-treated patients led to higher retention as compared with TNFi. Switching to TCZ in ABT-treated patients tended to lead to higher retention due to effectiveness, although total retention was similar as compared with TNFi. Key Point • This is the first retrospective, multi-center study aimed to clarify the retention rates of secondary bDMARDs or JAKi in patients with RA who were primarily being treated by TCZ or ABT as the first bDMARDs.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.