HCP Live reports on the findings of an HSS study presented by rheumatologist Vivian P. Bykerk, BSc, MD, FRCPC at the 2020 Congress of Clinical Rheumatology-East, which found treatment with sarilumab in rheumatoid arthritis patients was associated with lower odds of unacceptable or refractory pain compared with placebo or adalimumab.

Dr. Bykerk and colleagues conducted a post-hoc analysis of the TARGET, MOBILITY, and MONARCH studies to assess the association between the IL-6 inhibitor sarilumab and persistent unacceptable pain despite inflammation control.

Although the odds of refractory pain despite inflammation control was lower for sarilumab in the MOBILITY trial, the TARGET and MONARCH trials showed no differences between the comparators. Higher pain level was associated with worse levels of fatigue (Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy [FACIT]-Fatigue), disease activity (Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index [HAQ-DI]), swollen joint count, and tender joint count. The investigators reported that unacceptable pain had mostly moderate agreements with the likelihood of achieving response (MCID) on the previous outcomes. When adjusting for complete control of inflammation, they found that persisting pain was more common in patients who had a longer duration of the disease at baseline and/or had consistently failed other treatments, such as conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARDs) or tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi).

“Further research is needed regarding the sources of persistent pain and the potential role of inflammation control in patients with [rheumatoid arthritis] given that no significant differences were noted in two out of three studies when evaluating pain despite inflammation control,” they concluded.

Read the full article at HCPLive.com.