Vol.22 No.3

Original Article

Effectiveness and safety of adalimumab in Japanese patients with rheumatoid arthritis: retrospective analyses of data collected during the first year of adalimumab treatment in routine clinical practice (HARMONY study)

Authors

Tsutomu Takeuchi1 , Yoshiya Tanaka2 , Yuko Kaneko1 , Eiichi Tanaka3 , Shintaro Hirata2 , Takahiko Kurasawa4 , Satoshi Kubo2 , Kazuyoshi Saito2 , Kumi Shidara3 , Noriko Kimura1 , Hayato Nagasawa4 , Hideto Kameda1, Koichi Amano4, Hisashi Yamanaka3

  • Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Keio University, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 160-8582, Japan
  • The First Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, 1-1 Iseigaoka, Yahatanishi-ku, Kitakyushu, 807-8555, Japan
  • Institute of Rheumatology, Tokyo Women’s Medical University, 10-22 Kawada-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-0054, Japan
  • Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine, Saitama Medical Center, Saitama Medical University, 1981 Kamoda, Kawagoe, Saitama, 350-8550, Japan
Received:

1 August 2011

Accepted:

11 August 2011

Published online:

7 September 2011

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Abstract

We retrospectively investigated the ability of adalimumab (ADA) to reduce disease activity, improve physical function, and retard the progression of structural damage in 167 patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Clinical and functional outcomes were compared between patients with or without prior biologic treatment and those with or without concomitant methotrexate (MTX) treatment. At week 52, 38.3% achieved clinical remission: 42.4 and 28.6% of patients achieved remission in those without and with previous biologics, respectively, while 42.7 and 12.5% of patients achieved remission in those with and without concomitant MTX, respectively. ADA treatment significantly reduced the rate of radiographic progression from 27.1 ± 46.0 (median 13.6; 25th-75th percentiles 8.3 to 28.9) at baseline to 0.8 ± 5.0 (median 0.0; 25th-75th percentiles -0.9 to 2.0) at week 52 (P<0.0001). Radiographic progression was absent in 59.8% of patients. Sixty adverse events (34.21/100 patient-years) were reported, 16 of which were serious (9.12/100 patient-years). ADA therapy is highly effective for reducing disease activity, improving physical function, and limiting radiographic progression. It is generally safe and well tolerated by Japanese RA patients in routine clinical practice.

Key words

Adalimumab - Japanese - Retrospective study - Radiographic outcome - Rheumatoid arthritis