Objective: To investigate if treatment response predicts continuation of anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) treatment in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Methods: We investigated if treatment response and/or achieving a certain activity state at 6 weeks or 3 months predicts continuation of treatment in an observational cohort of 1789 anti-TNF-naive patients with established RA disease from southern Sweden.
Results: Response to treatment at 6 weeks at overall/American College of Rheumatology (ACR20) or good/major level (except ACR70) significantly predicted drug continuation. Response according to all criteria sets at overall/ACR20 and at good/major/ACR70 level predicted drug continuation at 3 months, as did achieving low disease activity at 3 months irrespective of activity index applied. Remaining in a high disease activity state predicted drug discontinuation at both timepoints and according to all criteria sets.
Conclusion: Response criteria may be useful aids in deciding on continuation of TNF blockade in RA as early as after 6 weeks of treatment. The various criteria sets perform similarly.