Long Term Safety and Efficacy of Etanercept in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis in a Single Center

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to investigate the long term safety and efficacy of etanercept in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). METHODS: The study subjects were the 90 JIA patients treated with etanercept in the Department of Pediatrics, Hallym University Medical Center between January 2004 and December 2017. We retrospectively reviewed their medical records for age at diagnosis, duration of etanercept treatment, number of active joints, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), and adverse events during treatment. RESULTS: Among the 90 patients, 38 (42.0%) were male and 52 (58.0%) were female; 15 (16.7%) had systemic onset, 41 (45.6%) had extended oligoarticular, 14 (15.6%) had rheumatoid factor-positive polyarticular, 18 (20.0%) had rheumatoid factor-negative polyarticular, and 2 (2.1%) had enthesitis-related arthritis. The median age at the start of etanercept treatment was 9 years (range, 3~18 years), and the median duration of etanercept treatment was 6 years (range, 0.5~13 years). The median number of active joints decreased from 9 to 0 after 6 months of etanercept treatment. The median CRP and ESR were within normal range after 3 months of treatment. Six patients experienced recurrence, 9 switched to other medications and 3 discontinued etanercept. Of the 14 reported adverse events, 1 was serious, and there were no tuberculosis infections or malignancies. CONCLUSION: Long-term treatment with etanercept is efficacious and safe for children with JIA. However, those with the systemic onset subtype appear to have low drug survival rate compared to those with other types of JIA.