Comparison of combination therapies in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis: leflunomide-anti-TNF-alpha versus methotrexate-anti-TNF-alpha

To compare the efficacy and safety of leflunomide (LEF)-anti-TNF-alpha combination therapy to methotrexate (MTX)-anti-TNF-alpha combination therapy in a group of patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We have recruited 120 patients with RA with a high disease activity despite being treated with MTX (15 mg/week) or LEF (20 mg/die) for 3 months, without side effects. In each of these patients, therapy with either MTX or LEF was continued and randomly combined with an anti-TNF-alpha drug: etanercept, infliximab, or adalimumab. Patients were assessed at study entry and at 4, 12, and at 24 weeks. The efficacy endpoints included variations in the DAS28-ESR and the ACR20, ACR50, and ACR70 responses. At each visit, any side-effect was recorded. There were no statistically significant differences in the DAS28 variations and in the ACR responses between the two groups or among the six subgroups. The number of discontinuation due to the appearance of serious side effects was higher, but not statistically significant, in the LEF-anti-TNF-alpha group than in the MTX-anti-TNF-alpha group. Other adverse events that did not necessitate the discontinuation of therapy occurred much more frequently in patients treated with MTX than in those treated with LEF. Anti-TNF-alpha drugs can be used in combination not only with MTX, but also with LEF, with the same probability of achieving significant clinical improvement in RA patients and without a significantly greater risk of serious adverse events. In contrast, it seems that combination therapy with LEF-anti-TNF-alpha is more readily tolerated than combination therapy with MTX-anti-TNF-alpha.