Browsing by Subject "TNF-blocker"

Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory autoimmune disease with prevalence of 0,8 per cent of Finnish people. Rheumatoid arthritis may lead to immobility and premature death. Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis includes disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs and surgery. TNF-blockers are efficacious new drugs, which halt the progression of joint destruction caused by inflammation. The first TNF-blocker to receive permission of the national agency for medicines was Infliximab in 1999. Since then Infliximab has been followed by Etanercept, Adalimumab, Golimumab and Certolizumab. TNF-blockers have been found to be more efficacious than placebo in both clinical trials and register studies. In addition they are considered to be safe enough for clinical use despite the increased risk for tuberculosis and certain cancers. The number of patients annually treated with TNF-blockers in Finland increased threefold between 2004 and 2008. In 2008 the medication costs per patient were 11 669€ for Etanercept and 13 074€ for adalimumab. Systematic literature review is a study, which searches, identifies and combines individual studies. Usually Systematic reviews include a meta-analysis, which uses statistical methods to combine the results of the studies. Meta-analysis aims for increasing power and generalisibility of the studies and reducing the potential bias in individual studies. In order not to introduce bias by itself the systematic review must be done following the methods approved by the scientific community. In addition the process must be documented in detail. Following a predefined search strategy the systematic literature search found 5308 references. After a process involving the evaluation of the patients, intervention, control, outcomes, study design and the risk of bias 27 studies were selected to be included in the systematic review and meta-analysis. Of the included studies, nine had adalimumab, six had etanercept, five had infliximab, four had golimumab and three certolizumab as intervention. TNF-blocker was used either alone or in combination with methotrexate whereas control was either placebo or methotrexate. Altogether, there were 11 533 patients in the intervention group and 9027 in the control group. The results of the meta-analysis indicate reveal that the patients treated with TNF-blockers are twice as likely to reach a 20 % increase on ACR criteria compared to control patients. The likelihood to reach improvements of 50 and 70 % was 3 and 3.5 times higher, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in efficacy between individual TNFblockers. Increasing the dosage of a TNF-blocker did not increase efficacy. However, combination of TNF-blocker and methotrexate was superior to monotreatment of TNF-blocker without increasing the likelihood of discontinuation of treatment. There were no statistically significant differences between the efficacy of TNF-blocker monotherapy and methotrexate. Adalimumab, infliximab and certolizumab lead more often to treatment discontinuation compared to etanercept and golimumab, which do not differ from control. This systematic review probably found all studies that investigated the efficacy of TNF-blockers in a randomized controlled trial. Study selection and evaluation were based on widely accepted methods. This study has two weaknesses. Firstly, literature search and study selection and evaluation were done only by a single researcher. Secondly, unpublished studies and study results were not actively obtained outside electronic databases.