A one-year course of the drug abatacept can delay the onset of rheumatoid arthritis by up to four years in high-risk individuals. The benefits persisted long after treatment stopped, according to new research from King's College London.
The study, published in The Lancet Rheumatology, followed participants from an earlier trial for four to eight years. Researchers tracked 213 people from the UK and the Netherlands who were at high risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis. Those who received abatacept developed the condition much later than those on placebo, with some delays extending several years beyond the treatment period.
