Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41565911›Full record

ArticleRheumatology and therapy2026

Efficacy and Safety of Tofacitinib and Adalimumab in Rheumatoid Arthritis by Body Mass Index-Normalized Methotrexate Dose: A Post Hoc Analysis.

Tsutomu Takeuchi, Yoshiya Tanaka, Hisashi Yamanaka, Kunihiro Yamaoka, Naonobu Sugiyama, Noriko Iikuni, Shigeyuki Toyoizumi, Kenneth Kwok, Wen-Chan Tsai, Eduardo Mysler and 3 more

Registry-linked trialAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Rheumatology and therapy, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT02187055 (A Phase 3b/4 Randomized Double Blind Study Of 5 Mg Of Tofacitinib With And Without Methotrexate In Comparison To Adalimumab With Methotrexate In Subjects With Moderately To Severely Active Rheumatoid Arthritis), which is not on this map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

NCT02187055 phase4completednot on this map

A Phase 3b/4 Randomized Double Blind Study Of 5 Mg Of Tofacitinib With And Without Methotrexate In Comparison To Adalimumab With Methotrexate In Subjects With Moderately To Severely Active Rheumatoid Arthritis

TypeinterventionalSponsorPfizerRan2014 to 2016Enrolled1,152ConditionsRhematoid ArthritisArmsTofacitinib with methotrexate, Tofacitinib without methotrexate, Adalimumab with methotrexate
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

13 authors.

Tsutomu TakeuchiKeio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
Yoshiya TanakaUniversity of Occupational and Environmental Health, Kitakyushu, Japan.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0807-7139
Hisashi YamanakaSanno Medical Center, Tokyo, Japan.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8453-6731
Kunihiro YamaokaKitasato University School of Medicine, Kanagawa, Japan.
Naonobu SugiyamaPfizer Japan Inc, Tokyo, Japan. naonoble2016@gmail.com.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5008-0665
Noriko IikuniPfizer Inc, New York, NY, USA.
Shigeyuki ToyoizumiPfizer R&D Japan, Tokyo, Japan.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7011-5263
Kenneth KwokPfizer Inc, New York, NY, USA.
Wen-Chan TsaiKaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Eduardo MyslerOrganización Médica de Investigación, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Robert J MootsFaculty of Health, Social Care and Medicine, Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, UK.
Josef S SmolenDivision of Rheumatology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Roy FleischmannMetroplex Clinical Research Center and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6630-1477

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionThis post hoc analysis assessed tofacitinib and adalimumab efficacy and safety, stratified by baseline methotrexate (MTX) dose, in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the Oral Rheumatoid Arthritis triaL (ORAL) Strategy study.

methodsORAL Strategy (NCT02187055) was a global, 1-year, phase 3b/4 study. Patients with RA and an inadequate response to MTX were randomized to tofacitinib 5 mg twice daily (BID), tofacitinib 5 mg BID plus MTX, or adalimumab 40 mg once every 2 weeks plus MTX, with MTX dosed per the last weekly dose pre-randomization. This post hoc analysis stratified patients by MTX dose in tertiles normalized by body mass index (BMI) and weight at baseline. Efficacy was assessed using American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 50 response rates at month 6 (primary endpoint); safety was assessed throughout. Efficacy and safety were analyzed descriptively.

resultsOf 1146 patients, 97 received MTX < 15 mg/week at baseline, 712 received 15-17.5 mg/week, and 337 received > 17.5 mg/week. In the tofacitinib and adalimumab combination therapy groups, similar ACR50 response rates at month 6 were observed across the baseline BMI-normalized MTX dose tertiles. This trend was also observed in the tofacitinib monotherapy group; however, the ACR50 response rates at month 6 were numerically higher with combination versus tofacitinib monotherapy, regardless of baseline BMI-normalized MTX dose tertile. Generally similar results were observed for the baseline weight-normalized MTX data. No clear trends across baseline BMI-normalized MTX dose tertiles were observed for safety outcomes.

conclusionsIn ORAL Strategy, tofacitinib efficacy was generally similar, and there were no clear safety trends regardless of baseline BMI-normalized MTX dose.

trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov identifier, NCT02187055.

Indexed as

Antirheumatic agentsClinical effectivenessMethotrexateRheumatoid arthritisTofacitinib

Identifiers

PMID41565911
PMCPMC12996443

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

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.