Mednet Logo
CommunityPulmonology

How do you determine whether to add abatacept or rituximab to the treatment regimen in patients with mild RA-ILD on methotrexate?

Community PollStarted

For RA ILD failing Methotrexate what is your next agent of choice?

297 physicians have voted

Join Mednetto vote and see how they answered.

4 Answers
Mednet Member
Mednet MemberInvited Expert
Rheumatology · U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Answered on

I think of many agents before rituxan for RA ILD: all in various stages of being studied MMF, Orencia/abatacept, Tocli/actemra, and even JAK inhibitors xeljanz/rinvoq. Generally, if I treat and control the joints, the lungs stabilize. 10-20% run independently from joints or extra-articular ILD witho...

Join for free or sign in to see the full answer

Mednet Member
Mednet MemberInvited Expert
Pulmonology · National Jewish Health
Answered on · Updated on

No data either way. Both will work for joints. If progressive ILD, I would favor ritux, based on the totality of the data (even though the quality is low). The downside of ritux is the response to vaccination we are seeing.

Join for free or sign in to see the full answer

Mednet Member
Mednet MemberInvited Expert
Rheumatology · UTMB Health
Answered on

There are published articles indicating that overall RA-ILD is less progressive than IPF, for example. In addition, I fully agree in looking for overlap autoimmune syndromes, especially ruling out myositis disorders. I have seen more than a few patients with such disorders initially presenting or be...

Join for free or sign in to see the full answer

Mednet Member
Mednet MemberInvited Expert
Rheumatology · University of Washington
Answered on

This question has been answered already, but I thought I would add a few comments. Both rituximab and abatacept are reasonable options based on current data over TNF inhibitors. The point about rituximab and infections/vaccinations is relevant, especially in light of a recent publication by Zhang et...

Join for free or sign in to see the full answer