Drug offers fresh hope for rheumatoid arthritis sufferers

Published on Sunday 26 October 2008 18:16

A MAJOR advance in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis can stop the crippling disease in 50 per cent of cases, trial data has shown.

The antibody drug tocilizumab offers fresh hope to the 487,000 people in the UK who suffer from the auto-immune condition, especially if administered in the early stages.

Nothing can be done to reverse the damage caused by rheumatoid arthritis (RA) which occurs when the body attacks its own joints, leading to severe disability and pain.

But the new results show adding tocilizumab to an existing treatment, methotrexate, can achieve remission by stopping progression of the disease in almost half of cases.

Taking methotrexate alone produced a remission rate of just eight per cent in the trial, led by Professor Paul Emery from the University of Leeds.

The combination treatment slowed structural damage to joints by 85 per cent on average, compared with 67 per cent for methotrexate alone.

Prof Emery said: "Results of this pivotal study convincingly demonstrate that tocilizumab can effectively and rapidly diminish the painful and debilitating effects of rheumatoid arthritis.

"These trial findings are significant because it is critical to stop joint damage as quickly as possible to avoid joint deformity and to help people with RA maintain their quality of life."

The results, from an international trial that involved 1,190 patients, were presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology in San Francisco.

They came as American research showed that after four decades of decline, rates of rheumatoid arthritis were now climbing among women in the US.