Rescue by re-administration of tofacitinib or MTX
DISEASE, REMISSION, DISEASE
An important issue concerning drug discontinuation is whether re-administration of the drug following initial discontinuation can rescue flares of the disease activity. To address this issue, we investigated the clinical activity after re-administration of tofacitinib or MTX in patients with flares. These patients were re-administrated tofacitinib in the tofacitinib discontinuation group and re-administrated MTX in the MTX discontinuation group. In the tofacitinib discontinuation group, 58.3% (14 patients) relapsed with a mean CDAI of 20.1 at the time of flares, which improved to a mean CDAI of 8.4 with the resumption of tofacitinib (Serial changes in the CDAI and clinical remission according to CDAI after rescue by re-administration of tofacitinib or methotrexate. Spaghetti plot (black lines: mean value, grey lines: the values of individual patients) and bar graph of remission rate are shown in the tofacitinib discontinuation group (A) and in the methotrexate discontinuation group (B). Data are mean (SD) and %. CDAI, Clinical Disease Activity Index.