Thalidomide successfully maintains remission in ankylosing spondylitis after discontinuing etanercept treatment / 中华风湿病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To determine whether thalidomide can maintain remission after discontinuing the treatment of etanercept in ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Methods One hundred and five patients with active AS treated with etanercept 50 rag/week for 12 weeks and attained an ASAS20 response at week 12. They were randomly assigned to receive thalidomide 150mg/night, sulfasalazine (SASP) 2.0 g/d, or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory durgs (NSAIDs) only. All patients were followed monthly for BASDAI, BASFI, PGA and spinal pain VAS. A Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was used to calculate the probability of a relapse. Results One hundred patients completed the follow-up. Thirty patients were treated with thalidomide, 33 patients with SASP and 37 patients with NSAIDs only. The mean follow-up time was 5.1 months and the longest time was 12 months. At the end of the follow-up, the percentage of patients who maintained remission in the thalidomide group was 40%, much higher than SASP group (15%) and NSAIDs group 11% (P=0.0265 and 0.0053 respectively). No difference was found between the remission rate of SASP and NSAIDs only group (P=0.5881). Conclusion Thalidomide can successfully maintain remission of AS after discontinue etanercept treatment.