How important is early therapy in axial spondyloarthritis?

There are 2 groups of drugs that have been shown effective in the treatment of patients with axial spondyloarthritis: nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and tumor necrosis factor α blockers. Conventional disease-modifying drugs and some other biologics have not been shown clinically efficacious in this disease. This overview discusses the available data on whether early treatment strategies in patients with axial spondyloarthritis have an effect on (1) the percentage of patients reaching clinical remission, (2) achieving drug-free remission, and (3) the progress of radiographic progression in the spine as a parameter for structural damage.