Rheumatoid arthritis affects around 1% of people worldwide. Etanercept and methotrexate are known to be effective in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis; however, no data exist on concurrent initiation or use of the combination compared with either drug alone.

Lars Klareskog from the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, and colleagues studied 686 patients with current rheumatoid arthritis who were randomly allocated treatment with either etanercept (25 mg subcutaneously twice a week) or oral methotrexate (up to 20 mg every week), or combination of both treatments. Clinical response was assessed by criteria of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and by disease activity score (DAS).

ACR scores were better for symptom relief after 6 months for patients given combination treatment than for patients receiving individual drug therapy, and remission after one year (defined from DAS scores) occurred in 35% of patients given combination treatment compared with 16% of patients given etanercept monotherapy and 13% given methotrexate monotherapy. Combination therapy was also more effective for effects on joint destruction measured by radiography-resulting in a statistically significant improvement on a score for joint erosion.

Dr Klareskog comments: "This is the first demonstration that erosions in established rheumatoid arthritis can improve over time in a group of patients within a controlled clinical trial, thus providing evidence that repair of joints destroyed by the disease may be a biological and clinical possibility". (quote by e-mail; does not appear in published paper).

In an accompanying Commentary (p 670), Armin Schnabel from
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Contact: Joe Santangelo
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Lancet
26-Feb-2004