The clinical efficacy and safety of short-term combination therapy with etanercept, methotrexate and cyclophosphamide for rheumatoid arthritis / 中华风湿病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the efficiency and safety of short-term combination therapy with e-tanercept, methotrexate and eyclophosphamide in the patients with active rheumatoid arthritis. Methods Eighty-four patients with rheumatoid arthritis were included into this study. However, only fifty-six patients were treated with either twice-weekly subcutaneous etanercept, weekly oral MTX and CTX injection every three weeks or twice-weekly subcutaneous etanercept only. The American College of Rheumamatology (ACR) criteria for improvement was used for clinical efficacy assessment and the following laboratory papameters were analyzedblood routine test, ESR, liver enzymes and renal function parameters, RF and anti-CCP antibody at baseline and the 2,4,8,12,24,36,52 weeks .At the same time ,all the adverse events were monitored throughout the study. Results The improvement of patients who received etanercept shortly, MTX and CTX periodically was as rapid as that of the patients who only received etanercept in ACR20, ACRYO, ESR and CRP (P>0.05). At the end of 36 weeks treatment, the level of anti-CCP antibody in the control group was higher than that of the test group. There was no significant difference between the two groups in adverse events (P<0.05). Conclusion The efficacy and safety of treatment with etanercept, methotrexate and cyclophosphamide in the patients with active rheumatoid arthritis is good.