AB0465 Safety and duration of biologic treatment in elderly patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Background Several differences may be expected between young and elderly patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), safety and efficacy results are variable in the different previous studies. 1,2 Objectives To compare the duration and safety of biological treatment in patients with RA depending on the age of onset of therapy, in a Spanish tertiary centre. Methods We conducted a retrospective observational study of patients with a diagnosis of RA who were receiving biologic treatment. They were diagnosed between February 1980 and February 2017, on the basis of criteria ACR/EULAR 2010 or 1987 ACR criteria. The information was obtained from review of medical records. We divided the patients in two groups according to age of the onset of treatment: elderly group (≥65 years) and young group ( Results 140 patients were included. At the beginning of the treatment 89 were under 65 years and 51 older (65–74 years: 28 patients,>75 years: 23). The average duration of the disease from diagnosis until the beginning of the biological treatment was 103±91 months in young patients and 142,86±109,5 months in elderly patients (p: 0,023). We detected no differences between both groups at baseline characteristics, except for comorbidities and sex. DAS28PCR prior to biologic therapy was 5.20±1.44 in young patients and 5.14±0813 in elderly (p: 0,37). Duration of the treatment was similar in both groups. Suspension of biologic treatment occurred in 50 young patients (56%) and 30 elderly patients (58%) (table 1). The causes are detailed in table 2. Adverse effects were more frequent in the elderly but without statistical significance. There were 9 cases of cancer in elderly patients (17.3%) and 4 cases in young patients (4.6%) p: 0013. The average diagnosis of cancer prior to the introduction of biologic treatment was 5.8±7.1 years. Conclusions Our study corroborate that biologic treatment has similar duration and safety in elderly and young patient. 1,2 References [1] Ishchenko A, Lories RJ. Safetyand Efficacy of Biological Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs in Older Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients: Staying the Distance; Drugs Aging2016;33:387–398. [2] Lahaye C, et al. Overview of biologic treatments in the elderly. Joint Bone Spine2015;82(2015):154–160. Disclosure of Interest None declared