The efficacy and safety of rituximab in rheumatoid arthritis: new evidence

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune rheumatic disease characterized by chronic erosive arthritis (synovitis) and a systemic inflammatory lesion of the internal organs, which results in early disability and worse quality of life in patients. The accumulated data on the efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness of anti-B cell therapy allow identification of rituximab (RTM) as an extremely important drug of first- or second-line therapy with biological agents after ineffective treatment with tumor necrosis factor-а (TNF-а) inhibitors. In this connection, the choice of a personalized treatment regimen remains relevant in each specific case as before. Clinical experience with RTM suggests that the drug is highly effective in improving both clinical manifestations and quality of life in patients with active RA that is characterized by resistance to disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs and TNF-а inhibitors, as well as in those with early RA. The current literature presents a large amount of data on the role of prior therapy and the impact of the stage of RA when using different RTM doses on its efficiency, some of which will be discussed in this review.