Re-Treatment with Abatacept Plus Methotrexate for Disease Flare After Complete Treatment Withdrawal in Patients with Early Rheum
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Rheumatoid arthritis RMD Open: first published as 10.1136/rmdopen-2018-000840 on 8 February 2019. Downloaded from ORIGINAL ARTICLE Re-treatment with abatacept plus methotrexate for disease flare after complete treatment withdrawal in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis: 2-year results from the AVERT study Paul Emery,1,2 Gerd R Burmester,3 Vivian P Bykerk,4 Bernard G Combe,5 Daniel E Furst,6 Michael A Maldonado,7 Tom WJ Huizinga8 To cite: Emery P, Burmester GR, ABSTRACT Bykerk VP, et al. Re- Objectives To complete reporting of outcomes after total Key messages treatment with abatacept withdrawal of all rheumatoid arthritis (RA) therapy and re- plus methotrexate for disease treatment after flare inA ssessing Very Early Rheumatoid What is already known about this subject? flare after complete treatment arthritis Treatment study (NCT01142726). ► Abatacept in combination with methotrexate induc- withdrawal in patients with es remission more often than methotrexate alone early rheumatoid arthritis: Methods Patients with early RA were initially randomised to double-blind, weekly subcutaneous abatacept plus after 12 months of treatment, with a greater propor- 2-year results from the tion of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) main- AVERT study. methotrexate, or abatacept or methotrexate monotherapy. RMD Open taining remission over 6 months following treatment 2019;5:e000840. doi:10.1136/ At month 12, patients with Disease Activity Score (DAS)28 rmdopen-2018-000840 C reactive protein (CRP) <3.2 had all RA treatments rapidly withdrawal. withdrawn and were observed for ≤12 months or until What does this study add? flare.A fter ≥3 months’ withdrawal, patients with protocol- ► Prepublication history and ► These final results of theA ssessing Very Early additional material for this defined RA flare received open-label abatacept plus Rheumatoid arthritis Treatment (AVERT) study paper are available in online. methotrexate for 6 months (re-treatment). demonstrate that, after receiving only 12 months Results Proportion of patients in DAS28-CRP–defined http://rmdopen.bmj.com/ To view these files, please visit of disease-modifying antirheumatic drug therapy remission remained numerically higher in original the journal online (http:// dx. doi. before withdrawal of all RA treatments, the majority org/ 10. 1136/ rmdopen- 2018- abatacept plus methotrexate and abatacept arms versus of patients will experience a flare within 6 months 000840). methotrexate arm up to day 253 of withdrawal. At the of treatment withdrawal and very few will sustain end of the withdrawal period, few patients remained in major responses for 1 year. Received 11 October 2018 remission across all arms: 9/73 (12.3%), 7/50 (14.0%) The study provides the most complete data on Revised 6 December 2018 and 6/53 (11.3%), respectively. For patients entering re- ► re-treatment with abatacept plus methotrexate Accepted 8 January 2019 treatment, after 6 months’ re-treatment, 95/124 (76.6%) showing that this combination can restore remission and 78/124 (62.9%) patients achieved DAS28-CRP or low disease activity in many patients who experi- <3.2 and <2.6, respectively; mean changes in DAS28-CRP on September 30, 2021 by guest. Protected copyright. and Health Assessment Questionnaire–Disability Index enced a flare after treatment withdrawal, with good scores from re-treatment baseline were –2.87 and 0.76, tolerability. respectively. Re-treatment was well tolerated; exposure- How might this impact on clinical practice? adjusted infection rates per 100 patient-years were lower ► This is the first study to examine the effects of com- with abatacept plus methotrexate during withdrawal (7.2) plete and rapid removal of all RA therapy, creating and re-treatment (17.2) versus initial treatment periods of data that will inform future efforts to develop off- months 0–6 (116.6) and 6–12 (64.6). drug remission strategies. Conclusions Most patients flared within 6 months of © Author(s) (or their therapy withdrawal and few sustained major responses for employer(s)) 2019. Re-use 1 year. Re-treatment with abatacept plus methotrexate was permitted under CC BY-NC. No effective and well tolerated in this controlled setting. achieving remission within this window, commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published tapering or withdrawal of treatment may offer 3–5 by BMJ. certain advantages if remission is sustained. For numbered affiliations see INTRODUCTION In order to develop biologic-free or even 3 end of article. In early rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a window drug-free remission strategies, we must Correspondence to may exist during which intensive treatment better understand the ability of current ther- Dr Paul Emery; can alter the disease course, leading to apies to sustain long-term off-drug remission, p. emery@ leeds. ac. uk improved long-term outcomes.1 2 For patients including the management of disease flares. Emery P, et al. RMD Open 2019;5:e000840. doi:10.1136/rmdopen-2018-000840 1 RMD Open RMD Open: first published as 10.1136/rmdopen-2018-000840 on 8 February 2019. Downloaded from Co-primary: Co-primary: DAS-defined remission DAS-defined remission Co-primary DAS28-CRP Ͻ2.6) at month 12 endpoints: at month 12 AND month 18 Early Abatacept + MTX RA If Ͻ3.2 Randomisation* Abatacept + placebo withdraw ALL study meds DAS28-CRP DAS28-CRP MTX Re-exposure period: If flare or worsening symptoms If у3.2 during months 15–24 then 6 months’ then D/C open-label abatacept + MTX Period: Treatment Withdrawal 012151824 Months Figure 1 Study design. *Randomisation stratified by corticosteroid use at baseline. DAS28-CRP, Disease Activity Score 28-C reactive protein; D/C, discontinuation; MTX, methotrexate; RA, rheumatoid arthritis. Reprinted from Emery P, et al. Ann Rheum Dis 2015;74:19-26, which is published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc/4.0/legalcode). In the Assessing Very Early Rheumatoid arthritis Treat- treatments were stopped—abatacept immediately, and ment (AVERT) study, treatment-naïve patients with early methotrexate and corticosteroids tapered over 1 month. RA were randomised to either subcutaneous abatacept Patients with protocol-defined RA flare after month 15 plus methotrexate, subcutaneous abatacept or meth- could receive open-label subcutaneous abatacept plus otrexate monotherapy for 1 year followed by complete methotrexate in a 6-month re-treatment period. RA flare withdrawal of all RA-specific therapeutic agents, including was defined as ≥2 of the following after the first 3 months http://rmdopen.bmj.com/ corticosteroids, and then monitored for flares before of the withdrawal period: doubling of tender and swollen re-treating with abatacept plus methotrexate. As previ- joint counts, increase in DAS28-CRP ≥1.2 (both from ously reported, it demonstrated the benefits, including month 12) or investigator’s judgement of RA flare. Abata- MRI improvements, of abatacept plus methotrexate versus cept was administered at 125 mg/week and methotrexate methotrexate alone in inducing remission at 12 months titrated to 10–20 mg/week. and maintaining remission over the first 6 months after Eligibility criteria included age ≥18 years, active clinical 6 7 withdrawal of all RA treatment. This report completes synovitis of ≥2 joints for ≥8 weeks, persistent RA symptoms the description of the efficacy and safety outcomes over for ≤2 years, DAS28-CRP ≥3.2, anticyclic citrullinated on September 30, 2021 by guest. Protected copyright. the full 12-month treatment withdrawal period and the peptide 2 (anti-CCP2) antibody positivity and metho- benefits of 6 months of re-treatment after an RA flare. trexate naïve/minimum exposure. Patients receiving It also explores which clinical characteristics were asso- oral corticosteroids had to be on a stable dose (≤10 mg/ ciated with flare or with regaining disease control after day) at baseline and maintain that dose until month 12; re-treatment. randomisation was stratified by baseline corticosteroid use (yes/no). METHODS Study design and patient population Assessments and statistical analyses Methodology of the phase IIIb AVERT study Proportions of patients in the withdrawal period with (NCT01142726) was published previously (figure 1).6 remission, defined as DAS28-CRP <2.6, Clinical Disease In the initial 12-month, double-blind treatment period, Activity Index (CDAI) ≤2.8, Simplified Disease Activity patients were randomised (1:1:1) to subcutaneous abata- Index (SDAI) ≤3.3 and Boolean criteria,8 and with low cept plus oral methotrexate, abatacept monotherapy plus disease activity (LDA) defined as DAS28-CRP <3.2, were oral placebo, or methotrexate monotherapy plus subcu- described over time. For patients entering withdrawal, taneous placebo. After 12 months, patients with Disease time to first RA flare during withdrawal and predictors Activity Score (DAS)28 C reactive protein (CRP) <3.2 of time to flare were analysed using a Cox proportion- could enter a 12-month withdrawal period and all RA al-hazards model including the following parameters at 2 Emery P, et al. RMD Open 2019;5:e000840. doi:10.1136/rmdopen-2018-000840 Rheumatoid arthritis RMD Open: first published as 10.1136/rmdopen-2018-000840 on 8 February 2019. Downloaded from initial study entry: randomised treatment, DAS28-CRP, (n=146) were studied to determine if any characteristic swollen joint count, Patient Global Assessment of Disease at study entry could predict an earlier flare after treat- Activity (PtGA), corticosteroid use, RA symptom dura- ment withdrawal. Kaplan-Meier curves for time to proto- tion, smoking status and anti-CCP2 antibody status. col-defined first flare during withdrawal showed no clear Summary statistics were generated for the mean change differences between randomisation arms (figure 2). Cox from re-treatment baseline to the end of re-treatment in proportional-hazards model of time to first flare after DAS28-CRP and Health Assessment Questionnaire-Dis- treatment withdrawal using various baseline parameters ability Index (HAQ-DI) scores, and for proportions of identified that only corticosteroid use at baseline was patients with DAS28-CRP remission and LDA at the end associated with a faster time to flare (p=0.0159; table 2).