Reumatizam, Vol. 55 No. 2, 2008.
Conference paper
Rituximab (MabThera®) - treatment of rheumatoid arthritis patients with inadequate response to TNF inhibitors - when to change therapy?
Jadranka Morović-Vergles
; Department for Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, Clinic for Internal Medicine, Clinical Hospital “Dubrava”, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
B cells play a critical role in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis. Recently, a number of biological agents that target B cells have been tested as therapies for these conditions. Of this group of agents, the first in clinical use has been rituximab, a chimeric monoclonal antibody that depletes B cells by binding to the CD20 cell-surface antigen.
25-40% of patients treated with a TNF inhibitor fail to achieve adequate response. A treatment response is inadequate if low disease activity or remission is not achieved. Treatment of patients with inadequate response to TNF inhibitors represents a challenge. What are the options? Switch to another anti-TNFα agent or initiate treatment with a biological agent with a different mechanism of action? In patients with persistent active disease despite anti-TNFα therapy, treatment with rituximab may be more effective than switching to another anti-TNFα.
Keywords
rituximab; rheumatoid arthritis; inadequate response; anti-TNFα therapy
Hrčak ID:
125250
URI
Publication date:
17.10.2008.
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