Patients with rheumatoid arthritis who achieve low disease activity with tofacitinib plus methotrexate can safely withdraw methotrexate without fear of worsening disease activity, according to findings published in The Lancet Rheumatology.

“Previous studies had demonstrated greater efficacy with TNF inhibitors in combination with conventional synthetic DMARDs in comparison to monotherapy,” Stanley B. Cohen, MD, of the Metroplex Clinical Research Center and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, told Healio Rheumatology. “Part of this enhanced improvement may be due to the reduction in anti-drug antibodies in patients receiving methotrexate. Methotrexate withdrawal studies with tocilizumab and etanercept had suggested patients in low disease activity in general maintain benefit after methotrexate withdrawal.”