Long-term efficacy and safety of canakinumab in patients with colchicine-resistant familial Mediterranean fever: results from the randomised phase III CLUSTER trial.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the long-term efficacy and safety of canakinumab to treat patients with colchicine-resistant familial Mediterranean fever (crFMF) during Epoch 4 (weeks 41 to 113) of the CLUSTER study. METHODS: Patients received open-label canakinumab 150 or 300 mg, every 4 or 8 weeks during a 72-week period. We evaluated disease activity every 8 weeks using the physician global assessment (PGA) of disease activity, counting the number of flares, and measuring concentrations of C reactive protein (CRP) and serum amyloid A (SAA). Safety was studied by determination and classification of observed adverse events (AEs). We analysed safety and efficacy separately in two subgroups of patients receiving a cumulative dose of less than 2700 mg, or equal or more than 2700 mg. RESULTS: Of the 61 patients that started the CLUSTER study, 60 entered Epoch 4 and 57 completed it. During the 72-week period, 35/60 (58.3%) patients experienced no flares, and 23/60 (38.3%) had one flare, as compared with a median of 17.5 flares per year reported at baseline. PGA scores indicated no disease activity for the majority of patients throughout the study. Median CRP concentrations were always lower than 10 mg/L, while median SAA concentrations remained over the limit of normal (10 mg/L) but under the 30 mg/L threshold. No new or unexpected AEs were reported. CONCLUSION: crFMF patients treated with canakinumab during 72 weeks experienced a minimal incidence of flares and good control of clinical disease activity, with no new safety concerns reported.

Classification criteria for autoinflammatory recurrent fevers.

BACKGROUND: Different diagnostic and classification criteria are available for hereditary recurrent fevers (HRF)-familial Mediterranean fever (FMF), tumour necrosis factor receptor-associated periodic fever syndrome (TRAPS), mevalonate kinase deficiency (MKD) and cryopyrin-associated periodic syndromes (CAPS)-and for the non-hereditary, periodic fever, aphthosis, pharyngitis and adenitis (PFAPA). We aimed to develop and validate new evidence-based classification criteria for HRF/PFAPA. METHODS: Step 1: selection of clinical, laboratory and genetic candidate variables; step 2: classification of 360 random patients from the Eurofever Registry by a panel of 25 clinicians and 8 geneticists blinded to patients' diagnosis (consensus ≥80%); step 3: statistical analysis for the selection of the best candidate classification criteria; step 4: nominal group technique consensus conference with 33 panellists for the discussion and selection of the final classification criteria; step 5: cross-sectional validation of the novel criteria. RESULTS: The panellists achieved consensus to classify 281 of 360 (78%) patients (32 CAPS, 36 FMF, 56 MKD, 37 PFAPA, 39 TRAPS, 81 undefined recurrent fever). Consensus was reached for two sets of criteria for each HRF, one including genetic and clinical variables, the other with clinical variables only, plus new criteria for PFAPA. The four HRF criteria demonstrated sensitivity of 0.94-1 and specificity of 0.95-1; for PFAPA, criteria sensitivity and specificity were 0.97 and 0.93, respectively. Validation of these criteria in an independent data set of 1018 patients shows a high accuracy (from 0.81 to 0.98). CONCLUSION: Eurofever proposes a novel set of validated classification criteria for HRF and PFAPA with high sensitivity and specificity.