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Lucky 7 Learnings from the ACR

Dr. Janet Pope  Featured
November 12 2015 3:16 AM ET via RheumReports RheumReports

The Lucky 7:

  1. This year I left my heart in San Francisco – or at least in RA, the excess cardiac and all-cause mortality is decreasing as demonstrated by many presentations (abstract #1999, 3237) and response to MTX predicts mortality decades later (i.e. likely remission prolongs life) (#3239)

  2. Shingles is associated with a risk for stroke! This is not a stroke of luck for someone who gets HZ. Presentation #896 by Len Calabrese showed increased CVA after HZ for 90 days after, especially cranial or ophthalmic. I wonder if this is due to local vasculitis.

  3. Goat serum may help treat SSc (#3264). Hyperimmune caprine serum administered SC seems to improve skin in SSc patients with long-standing diffuse scleroderma. There were no allergic reactions. This has been used in some neurologic problems such as combined inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP). The tolerability and changes in fibrotic markers looked not baaaaad.

  4. Very impressive data for anti–interleukin-17A antibody in PsA. The GRAPPA guidelines will need to be updated (just recently presented) as more drugs are approved for our patients with PsA.

  5. Secukinumab seems to slow radiographic progression in ankylosing spondylitis – a new era of treatment for SpA.

  6. Treatment for SLE – finally a positive trial (anifrolumab is a fully human IgG1 κ monoclonal antibody directed against subunit 1 of the type I interferon receptor). An early phase IL-2 trial was also presented with encouraging results.

  7. Holy Jack! The JAK inhibitors seem to have very impressive early ACR responses. There are different JAKs – whether there will be safety and efficacy differences between JAK inhibitors as newer JAKs go in to later phase trials, remains unknown.

    1. Baricitinib JAK1/JAK2 was superior to TNFi in a head-to-head trial

    2. Filgotinib JAK1 inhibitor – amazing early ACR 20/50/70 responses vs placebo

    3. ABT-494 JAK1 inhibitor

    4. Tofacitinib (JAK1/3)


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About the Author

Dr. Janet Pope
Dr. Janet Pope

Dr. Janet Pope is Professor of Medicine at Western University and Division Head of Rheumatology. Dr. Pope's research interests include epidemiologic studies in scleroderma, classification criteria in systemic sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis.

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