Were the patients enrolled in the SEAM-RA trial prior methotrexate monotherapy non-responders?
Usual clinical practice is to add TNFi once methotrexate monotherapy has failed. If this is the case in these patients, it would seem to increase the chance of disease flare in the MTX only group.
Answer from: at Academic Institution
Yes, presumably at one time, most of these patients were methotrexate non-responders because otherwise, it’s unlikely they would have required escalation to TNFi. Clinicians would typically not add TNFi therapy unless the patient had first failed DMARDs (i.e., methotrexate in this case). It is...