Year: 2002
Type: conference-abstract
Abstract: New therapies have dramatically changed the way both clinicians and patients think about treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Indeed, it has become realistic to think about improvement defined by the ACR70 (reduction by 70% in the American College of Rheumatology composite response criteria) as the standard of care, and even to consider the possibility of remission and prevention of long-term disability. However, the possibility of cure remains remote. Why we do not have a cure for RA is a question that patients around the world continue to ask their physicians daily but, unfortunately, is no better answered in this millennium than it was in the last. Rheumatologists, the eternal optimists, can now offer their patients confident reassurance that the tragic outcomes of past decades are largely preventable, albeit at considerable ongoing expense. Yet the very fact that chronic, and generally uninterrupted, therapy is needed to suppress the manifestations of this disease is perhaps the clearest indication that a cure is nowhere in sight. Indeed, finding a cure for established RA is possibly no more likely than finding a cure for hypertension, where control of organ damage is the only realistic goal of therapy. The impediments we currently face in finding a cure for RA are numerous and are considered here. They are summarized in Table 1 . In addition, the possibility that RA can be prevented is explored.
Source: Arthritis Research
DOI: 10.1186/ar568
Authors: Hani D El-Gabalawy, Peter E Lipsky
Language: English
Subfield: Rheumatology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2103883215