Tocilizumab induces corticosteroid sparing in rheumatoid arthritis patients in clinical practice

International audience; Objective. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of introducing tocilizumab (TCZ) as co-therapy with CS in patients with RA.Methods. This study was an open, observational, retrospective multicentre study. RA patients treated with oral CS for >3 months who started treatment with TCZ between December 2009 and June 2011 in five centres were included. Variables included demographic data, disease history, co-treatments, disease activity and dose of CS at inclusion and at weeks 4, 8, 12 and 24. The evolution of disease activity and of the dose of CS (analysis of variance with repeated measures) were analysed, searching for factors correlated with changes in the …