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IL-6

Advice on Multi-Drug Failures in RA

Sep 25, 2023

What’s your next best approach to the rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patient who has failed several DMARDs and biologics?  In such cases you have to either reconsider the diagnosis (especially if seronegative) or reach into your bag of tricks.  



As many of us struggle with multi-drug

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RheumNow Podcast with Special Guest Dr. Michael Weinblatt (9.22.2023)

Sep 22, 2023

Dr. Jack Cush is joined by Dr. Michael Weinblatt as they discuss this weeks news and journal reports, including difficult RA, HLA typing and abatacept responses and new regulatory decisions. 




  1. UCB has issued a press update on its pending application for the approval of their

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Cytokine comparison of Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease (KFD) & Stills dz (pts w/ FUO and LN) shows, after excluding HLH/MAS pts, KFD pts had higher serum IFN-γ (> 8.56 pg/mL) & IFN-γ/IL-6 ratio > 0.45. Stills pts had higher serum IL-6 levels than KFD https://t.co/KYPa9OQaa5 https://t.co/70S0M9nGhp

Biologic Adherence and Drug Survival in RA Patients

Aug 24, 2023

A real-world rheumatoid arthritis (RA) cohort study from Israel shows significant variability of drug survival using biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatics drugs (bDMARDs) and targeted synthetic DMARDs (tsDMARDs).



A total of 753 RA patients were drawn from in a large Israeli

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Tofacitinib in Polymyalgia Rheumatica (EAST PMR Study)

Aug 01, 2023

An open-label, uncontrolled pilot trial has shown that JAK signaling is involved in the pathogenesis of PMR and that tofacitinib is as effective as glucocorticoids (GC) in patients with polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR).

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EULAR/ACR Guidance on Haemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis/Macrophage Activation Syndrome

Jul 26, 2023

A EULAR/American College of Rheumatology task force has established evidence based, up-to-date guidance and expert opinion on the evaluation, management and monitoring of patients with Haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) and macrophage activation syndrome (MAS), with the primary intent to 

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Anti-Drug Antibodies with Biologics (7.14.2023)

Jul 14, 2023

Dr. Jack Cush Reviews the news and journal reports on CVA, TKA, PJP, ADA, and more!

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GCA and the Risk of Cerebrovascular Ischemic Events

Jul 10, 2023

Cerebrovascular ischemic events (CIE) can be one of the most severe complications of giant cell arteritis (GCA), but is seen in 4-5% of GCA patients according to a recent French University Hospital. 



A retrospective study of 271 GCA patients (89 males, mean age 72 ± 9 years) from the

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ICYMI: Drug Safety Differences with New Novel Therapies in RA

Jul 06, 2023

Safety outcomes for targeted synthetic or biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (b/ts DMARDs) used to treat RA were studied using data from the Anti-Rheumatic Therapies in Sweden (ARTIS) registry, showing that these newer agents are largely similar, but still have particular

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Treatment Sequences Define Subphenotypes in RA Patients

Jun 21, 2023

An analysis of a large rheumatoid arthritis cohort sheds light on biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) clustering that may be used in management, as certain clusters of b/tsDMARD correlated with disease activity over time. 

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Are bDMARDs, tsDMARDs and biosimilar DMARDs cost effective?

Jun 20, 2023

Treatment advances with new biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs), targeted synthetic DMARDs (tsDMARDs) and biosimilar DMARDs (bsDMARDs) have proven efficacy and safety; but does their increased cost yield commensurate benefits in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and

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EULAR 2023 Notes from Milan (6.09.2023)

Jun 09, 2023

Dr. Jack Cush reviews highlight abstracts and sessions - covering lupus, RA, gout, Still's disease, safety data, AI in medicine and more - from last week's EULAR 2023 Congress held in Milan, Italy.

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@eular_org recommendation for AOSD/sJIA: An IL-1 or IL-6 inhibitor should be initiated as early as possible when the diagnosis is established #EULAR2023 @RheumNow https://t.co/xNUdpGDxb9
“You don’t need MTX with TCZ for RA” Err, well: - just like TNFi, you def can get ADAb to TCZ - they definitely lead to lower response rates - MTX co-admin reduces ADAb Seems like a good idea to me, but your call 🤷‍♂️ Bitoun, Mariette et al POS0630 #EULAR2023 @RheumNow https://t.co/2jOAqA6YZ3

EULAR 2023: Featured Industry Presentations

May 30, 2023

EULAR 2023 opens tomorrow, Wednesday May 31st, with hundreds of novel presentations and pivotal clinical trials, many being featured industry sponsored clinical trials and research on their novel agents. Below is a collection of the featured abstracts, and presentation times from EULAR 2023

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Prevalence of Psoriatic Arthritis, Spondyloarthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis in Norway

May 25, 2023

Recent reports have suggested a rising and unrecognized number of patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) compared to rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This has implications on diagnosis and population care.  A recent analysis of Norway registry data answers this

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Allergic Drug-Induced Arthritis (5.19.2023)

May 19, 2023

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from this past week on RheumNow.com.  This week we delve into some odd associations, repeat drug warnings and the consequences of antirheumatic therapies.




  1. Subanalysis of the tofacitinib ORAL Surveillance study shows the JAK

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IL-6 for PMR SPARE and SEMAPORE (Toci), SAPHYR (Sari) 2/2023: FDA approves sarilumab for PMR for inadequate response to corticosteroids or unable to taper off Robert Spiera @RheumNow #RNL2023 https://t.co/VtzW01Ez7D https://t.co/P6oUQvmDXH

National Population Insights (4.28.2023)

Apr 28, 2023

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports and addresses 3 viewer case questions.

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Pooled analysis of 5 RCTs of tocilizumab vs DMARDs in 4474 female #RA pts- 63% postmenopausal, 23% premenopausal, 9% perimenopausal. Perimenopausal F had less remission (HR 0.78); but exogenous Sex hormone use had higher remission (HR 1.20) https://t.co/zmvpzFlBRQ https://t.co/lUbGKr4akR

Best Treatments for Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor-associated Arthritis

Apr 12, 2023

A retrospective study of cancer patients who developed immune checkpoint inhibitor-associated inflammatory arthritis (ICI-IA) shows that biologic DMARDs were more effective than conventional synthetic DMARDs (csDMARDs) in rapid control of arthritis.

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Have a Rheumatology question or case for Jack Cush? Record it here and we may feature it on an upcoming podcast. Tell us your name and where you practice rheumatology. https://t.co/MMHvtkbz9l https://t.co/3aNijNJWkW
#RNL2023 Year in Review New Drugs in Old Disease? GCA - Tocilizumab (GiACTA ), Secikinumab (TitAIN), Mavrilimumab (GM-CSFr mAb) PMR - Sarilumab (SAPHYR), TCZ (PMR-Spare, SEMAPHORE), Tofacitinib (EAST PMR) @RheumNow https://t.co/cY2HuaI6uM
An exciting year and time for GCA and PMR treatment! - Tocilizumab (IL-6i) - Secukinumab (IL-17i) - Sarilumab (IL-6i) - Mavrilimumab (GM-CSF receptor mAb) - Tofacitinib (JAKinib) @RheumNow #RNL2023 https://t.co/d0T2RAssFY
Limitations of IL6 and some unanswered questions in GCA ? By Dr.Robert Spiera #RNL2023 ⁦@RheumNow⁩ https://t.co/3tJpRhmFAJ
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