Combination therapy in rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

The therapeutic armamentarium available for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has changed significantly over the past 30 years, transforming the therapeutic landscape and prognosis for a substantial proportion of patients with RA. Combination therapies represent an important therapeutic paradigm for management of rheumatoid arthritis. The rationale for combination therapies is clear and demonstrated to bring treatment benefit to patients achieving lower disease activity scores and reduced radiologic progression according to ‘treat-to-target’ principles. A rigorous evidence-based debate is required involving not only parameters related to disease activity scores and radiologic progression, but related to the cost-effectiveness analysis of using many of these newer agents compared to older csDMARDs. This chapter addresses the evidence related to the utilization of combination strategies for the management of RA as compared to monotherapy.