Rituximab re-treatment 'not effective for rheumatoid arthritis patients'

Re-treatment with rituximab is not effective in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients who do not respond to initial treatment with the drug, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of Amsterdam and the Jan van Breemen Institute in the Netherlands studied the effects of the drug on RA sufferers who had previously not responded to it.

Three courses of rituximab were given at intervals of six months, regardless of whether it had previously been effective.

Results, published in the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism, showed that seven of the 24 patients who had qualified for re-treatment with rituximab did not show clinical improvements after the first course of treatment.

These patients did not respond to subsequent treatments with the drug either, leading the researchers to conclude: "Rituximab re-treatment is not effective in patients who do not exhibit clinical improvement after the first treatment course, which is consistent with the notion that such patients represent a different pathogenetic subset of RA. "

A spokesman for the Arthritis Research Campaign said that targeting particular subsets of patients who would do well on specific drugs was a major research goal.

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