Association of previous treatment with anti-tumour necrosis factor inhibitors with the effectiveness of secukinumab in the treatment of psoriatic arthritis: systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract Objectives We sought to systematically investigate the effectiveness of secukinumab in psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients who previously received TNFs inhibitor (TNFi) treatment and those who were TNFi naïve. Methods Databases (PubMed, EMBase and Cochrane library) and ClinicalTrials.gov were searched from inception to 22 May 2020 for randomized control trails and observational studies of secukinumab, with or without a history of previous anti-TNFi treatment, in PsA. Effectiveness data were extracted and combined using a random-effects meta-analysis. The ACR20 and ACR50 (20% and 50% improvement in American College of Rheumatology response criteria) responses were the endpoints. Results Six randomized controlled trials that reported the effectiveness of secukinumab by previous anti-TNFi treatment were included. Among patients exposed to a prior anti-TNFi treatment (n = 738), 33.7% (249/738) of patients achieved an ACR20 response. In contrast, in the anti-TNFi-naïve group (n = 1754), 49.8% (873/1754) of patients achieved an ACR20 response. Prior treatment with anti-TNFi was significantly associated with a poorer response to secukinumab compared with the anti-TNFi-naïve group with an effect size of 2.09 (95% CI: 1.69, 2.58). Conclusion Some patients benefit from switching from TNFi to secukinumab, but previous anti-TNFi treatment is associated with poorer effectiveness of secukinumab.