Progress toward personalized treatment of rheumatoid arthritis

M P Keith1, J D Edison, W R Gilliland

  • 1Division of Rheumatology, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.

Treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has advanced significantly over the past decade, in part because of the identification of key elements in the immunopathogenesis of the disease, leading to the development of targeted immune-based therapies. Despite the availability of many highly specific therapies, the process of selecting a treatment regimen for an individual patient remains empirical. Personalized treatment, focused on predicting efficacy, non-response, and toxicity to better guide medication selection, moves closer to realization as genomic methods continue to be extended and refined.

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