Combination Drug Therapy Retards Early RA Damage

LEIDEN, The Netherlands, March 20 -- For early rheumatoid arthritis, aggressive combination therapy can slow progression to joint damage, investigators here found.
Among 508 patients treated in a randomized multicenter trial, initial combination therapy plus either tapered prednisone or infliximab (Remicade) and other medications outperformed monotherapy in the first year, reported Yvonne P.M. Goekoop-Ruiterman, M.D., of the University of Leiden, and colleagues and other centers.
"We conclude that the difference in disease activity during the first year is clinically relevant and will probably have an economic impact," the investigators wrote in the March 20 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The combination therapy with prednisone or infliximab was also better at suppressing progression to joint damage in the early stages of disease, but by two years about 42% of patients in all treatment groups were in remission, and many were being maintained on only one disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD), or none, the authors noted.
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Rheumatology/Arthritis/tb1/5283