ArticleBMC rheumatology2025
Effectiveness and patient-reported impact of on-flare retreatment in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: insights from retrospective long-term real-world data.
Article in BMC rheumatology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Long-term effectiveness and safety of annual biosimilar Rituximab retreatment in seropositive Rheumatoid Arthritis: A 4-year real-world study.Clinical rheumatology · 2026Observational
- Evidence for the use of anti-CD20 therapeutic antibodies in immune thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura management: a review.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Review
- Unveiling novel therapeutic mechanisms of Xinfeng capsule: modulating the ALKBH5-m6A-LINC00968 axis to alleviate oxidative stress-driven NETosis in rheumatoid arthritis.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRituximab is known as an efficacious drug for the treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). The original administration schedule consisted of two infusions of 1000 mg with a 2-week interval. We aimed to explore the long-term effectiveness of rituximab in daily clinical practice in patients with RA.
methodsData of patients with RA treated with rituximab in a tertiary university hospital (2006-2019) were retrospectively collected from rituximab initiation until December 1st 2019 or rituximab discontinuation, whichever came first. Rituximab retreatment was based on a treat-to-target-approach guided by a 28-joint disease activity score (DAS28) ≥ 3.2, as dictated by national reimbursement criteria. Rituximab retention rate was investigated using a Kaplan-Meier survival curve.
resultsWe collected data of 104 patients (59% female, 94% RF/ACPA-seropositive). At rituximab initiation, patients had a mean ± SD age of 58 ± 12 years and median disease duration of 12 (IQR 5-17) years. Patients were followed for a median of 40 (IQR 14-80) months and received a median of 3 (IQR 2-6) rituximab cycles. In total, 9% (9/104) patients discontinued rituximab and 14% (15/104) were treated with a reduced dose. Inherent to the retreatment strategy, disease activity fluctuated with a DAS28-increase before every new rituximab administration. Similar fluctuations were noticed for patient and physician reported outcomes. Proportion of patients continuing rituximab after three years was 94% (95% CI 89% - 99%).
conclusionsAlthough rituximab can be considered as an efficacious drug for RA treatment in daily practice, fluctuations in disease activity were noticed related to the retreatment approach, accompanied by impaired patient's wellbeing.
trial registrationNot applicable.
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