Tocilizumab in the treatment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis in real clinical practice: results of an Italian observational study

Objective To describe the effectiveness and safety of tocilizumab (TCZ), an interleukin-6 receptor inhibitor, in a cohort of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) recruited in clinical practice. Methods TRUST was an observational study in RA patients who started treatment with TCZ in the 6 months prior to site activation and were still on treatment at start of study; patients were followed up to 12 months after the first TCZ infusion. Results 322 RA patients were enrolled in 59 Italian centres (mean age: 55.8 years; mean disease duration: 120.5 months; baseline DAS28: 5.3). After 6 months of TCZ treatment, patients achieving low disease activity (DAS28 <= 3.2; 57.52%) or disease remission (DAS28 <2.6; 38.05%) were 216 out of 226 patients with available DAS28 (p