Canakinumab in Systemic Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis: Clinical Inactive Disease Rate and Safety in Italian Patients

Introduction: Systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (sJIA) accounts for 10-20% of all patients with JIA. The demonstration of a key role of IL-1 and IL-6 in the pathogenesis of the disease, led to consider sJIA an autoinflammatory disease: this explain the successfully use of IL-1 and IL-6 inhibitors. While the efficacy and safety of anakinra in sJIA is widely documented, there are no reports on large series of patients treated with canakinumab outside of the setting of clinical trials. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate clinical response rate and disease course of canakinumab in Italian cohort of patients with sJIA. Methods: This is a retrospective multicenter study. Demogr…