Tofacitinib tied to reduced incidence of ILD among Rheumatoid arthritis patients

The results of the research study are:

• Twenty-eight thousand five hundred fifty-nine patients with RA mean age of 55.6 years were included.
• The number of patients treated with adalimumab, abatacept, rituximab, tocilizumab, and tofacitinib were 22 158, 13 326, 5676, 5444, 2548 patients and 1565, respectively.
• Crude IRs per 1000 person-years for ILD for adalimumab, abatacept, rituximab, tocilizumab, and tofacitinib were 3.43, 4.46, 6.15, 5.05, and 1.47, respectively.
• Patients treated with tofacitinib had a lower risk of ILD with aHR of 0.31.4
• Patients treated with tofacitinib had a 68% reduced risk of ILD than adalimumab with aHR 0.32.
• The risk was reduced by 69% of ILD in patients treated with tofacitinib than those treated with adalimumab.

Concluding further, they said among RA patients, those treated with tofacitinib had the lowest incidence of ILD. More research is required to understand how tofacitinib prevents ILD in patients with RA.

They also mentioned words of caution, saying results should be interpreted with caution due to the relatively small sample size of the tofacitinib group.

Further reading:

Baker MC, Liu Y, Lu R, Lin J, Melehani J, Robinson WH. Incidence of Interstitial Lung Disease in Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis Treated With Biologic and Targeted Synthetic Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6(3):e233640. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.3640