Does concomitant methotrexate confer clinical benefits in patients treated with prior biologic therapy? Analysis of data from a noninterventional study of rheumatoid arthritis patients initiating treatment with adalimumab

Most studies of methotrexate (MTX) in combination with tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors have focused on treatment-naive patients with early disease. The goal of this study was to evaluate whether previous biologic therapy influenced the impact of concomitant MTX in patients initiating treatment with adalimumab. We retrospectively analyzed data from 2 large noninterventional studies of German patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who initiated adalimumab therapy during routine clinical practice. Patients were seen between April 2004 and February 2013 for study 1 and between April 2003 and March 2013 for study 2. Key outcomes were Disease Activity Score-28 joints (DAS28), patient global assessment of health (PGA), and pain. Subgroup analyses by prior biologic treatment were performed on patients treated with continuous adalimumab monotherapy or adalimumab plus MTX for 12 months and 2-sample t tests were used to evaluate differences. We also assessed outcomes in subgroups in which MTX had been added or removed at 6 months and compared outcomes with 1-sample t tests. Of 2654 patients, 1911 (72%) were biologic naive and 743 (28%) had received prior biologic therapy, usually with a TNF inhibitor. All subgroups showed improvements following initiation of adalimumab therapy. In patients with no previous biologic treatment, continuous adalimumab plus MTX was associated with greater improvements in DAS28, PGA, and pain at month 12 compared with continuous adalimumab monotherapy (P = .0006, .0031, and .0032, respectively). In patients with previous biologic treatment, concomitant MTX was associated with statistically significant benefits in pain only. Adding MTX at month 6 resulted in additional benefits in patients with no prior biologic therapy, but not those with previous biologics. We conclude that concomitant MTX resulted in additional improvements in DAS28 and PGA vs adalimumab monotherapy in patients with no previous biologic therapy, but changes were not statistically significant in patients treated with prior biologics. These findings may help inform the patient/provider treatment decision during routine clinical care.