Safety profile of biologic agents for Behçet's disease in a multicenter observational cohort study

AIM: The primary aim of this study was to explore the safety profile of biologic treatments in Behçet's disease (BD), based on their mechanism of action; the secondary aim was to study any potential variation in terms of retention rate according to each single drug. METHOD: We studied a total of 85 treatment regimens with biologic agents from 64 patients. The total follow-up was calculated as 8640 patient-years (anti-tumor necrosis factor [TNF]-alpha 7.020, anti-interleukin [IL]-beta 1.368). Cumulative rates of drug retention were studied using the Kaplan-Meier plot and covariates in the regression model included the mechanism of action of the biologic agent, other concomitant therapies, disease duration, sex, age at start of drug therapy; for each confounding factor hazard ratios (HR) were calculated. RESULTS: The most frequently prescribed biologic treatments were anti-TNF-alpha agents (79%), while anti-IL1-beta was used in the remaining regimens. Concomitant disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs were prescribed in 36% of patients, mainly cyclosporine and methotrexate, while in 35/85 regimens low-dose glucocorticoids were associated. During the follow-up, in all but one regimen the safety profile was free of any adverse events or serious adverse events; we observed only one case of endocarditis, reported during the 10th month of etanercept. CONCLUSION: Data from a large multicenter cohort suggest that anti-TNF-alpha and anti-IL1-beta agents are characterized by an excellent safety profile in BD.