Is an innate biologic effect responsible for a better response to TNF inhibitors in men?
Reference1. Højgaard P, Ballegaard C, Cordtz R, et al. Gender differences in biologic treatment outcomes-a study of 1750 patients with psoriatic arthritis using Danish Health Care Registers. Rheumatology. 2018 Jun 9. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/key140. [Epub ahead of print]
Højgaard and colleagues in Denmark have discovered that men with psoriatic arthritis respond better to tumor necrosis factor alpha inhibitors (TNFi) than women, which suggests an innate biologic effect in men.1
Scroll through the slides for the details of the study and the take-home points for clinicians.
In addition, men were more likely than women to continue TNFi therapy. Female gender was associated with TNFi withdrawal due to lack of efficacy and adverse events.