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CompletedNCT03880968T2TEASUpdated Jul 1, 2021

Treat-to-Target Strategy With Etanercept for Ankylosing Spondylitis

An observational study in Spondylitis, Ankylosing, sponsored by Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University. Completed. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 65 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2021-07-01.

Sponsored by Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University · Observational

Study type
Observational
Model
Cohort
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
311
Ages
18 Years to 65 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Evaluate the disease activity guided tapering and discontinuation strategies of etanercept (ETN) in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) in 48 weeks.

Read the detailed description

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS), a subset of axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA), is a chronic inflammatory disorder characterized by inflammatory back pain and predominant involvement of sacroiliac joints and spine, leading to bony fusion of vertebrae and eventually disability in some patients. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are recognized as a first-line therapy for AS, but the overall response rates to NSAIDs are considerably unsatisfactory. With the advent of biologics, the outcomes of AS patients have been greatly improved. Biologics including tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) inhibitors (TNFi) have been included in many recommendations for the treatment of AS. Etanercept, a recombinant human TNFα receptor, is capable of binding to TNFα and blocking its biological activities. It is effective in relieving symptoms, improving physical function, and reducing disease activity in patients with AS, and generally no severe adverse effects have been reported. However, the high expense of biologics restricts their long-term use, which urges a viable strategy to reduce the dosage of biologics while maintaining an optimal therapeutic efficacy. To investigate the stepwise tapering and discontinuation of TNFi based on disease activity in patients with AS, a 48-week, prospective, randomized, multicentric study was conducted. An etanercept biosimilar, rhTNFR:Fc (recombinant TNF receptor: Fc fusion protein, Yisaipu), which is one of the most widely used biosimilars in China, was used in this study.

02

Conditions studied

03

In context

Spondylitis

623 studies on the registry are indexed under Spondylitis; 83 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 311 is above the median of 202 across 256 observational studies indexed under Spondylitis.

Browse Spondylitis studies →

Lead sponsor

Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University is the lead sponsor of 1,058 studies on the registry; 511 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 65 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No
Sampling method
Probability sample

Study population

Patients with AS were recruited in this study. Eligible patients were aged between 18 years old and 65 years old, and were diagnosed with AS according to 1984 revised New York classification criteria. Only patients meet both inclusion and exclusion criteria were included.

Inclusion criteria

  • aged between 18 years old and 65 years old with AS, according to 1984-revised New York classification criteria.
  • an active disease of ASDAS with C reactive protein (ASDAS-CRP) ≥2.1.
  • a disease duration of 6 months to 30 years.
  • no exposure to biologics in recent 6 months before recruitment. Concomitant medications with NSAIDs, conventional disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (cDMARDs), or prednisone or a prednisone equivalent (≤10mg/day), were allowed to continue if they were maintained at a stable dose for 4 weeks or more from baseline.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • late-stage patients with spinal fusion.
  • patients with severe cardiac, hepatic, renal, hematologic or endocrine diseases.
  • patients with a history of multiple sclerosis, current or past malignancy.
  • patients who were pregnant, or planning to become pregnant, or breastfeeding.
  • patients with active or recurrent infections, or those who required oral antibiotics 2 weeks or intravenous antibiotics 4 weeks before screening.
  • patients with current or past or potential tuberculosis.
05

Study design

Observational model
Cohort
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
311 participants (actual)
Patient registry
No

Groups and cohorts

  • inactive - half dosage tapering

    Active AS patients with AS disease activity score (ASDAS)≥2.1 were recruited from ten hospitals, initially managed with ETN 50mg weekly for 12 weeks, and then randomized into subgroups with different tapering or discontinuation strategies according to ASDAS at week 12. Patients in this arm were those who achieved inactive disease (ASDAS\<1.3, group A) at week 12 and assigned to sequential tapering group (A1).

    Drug: tapering or discontinuation of etanercept

  • inactive - discontinuation

    Active AS patients with AS disease activity score (ASDAS)≥2.1 were recruited from ten hospitals, initially managed with ETN 50mg weekly for 12 weeks, and then randomized into subgroups with different tapering or discontinuation strategies according to ASDAS at week 12. Patients in this arm were those who achieved inactive disease (ASDAS\<1.3, group A) at week 12 and then assigned to discontinuation group (A2).

    Drug: tapering or discontinuation of etanercept

  • low disease activity - half dosage tapering

    Active AS patients with AS disease activity score (ASDAS)≥2.1 were recruited from ten hospitals, initially managed with ETN 50mg weekly for 12 weeks, and then randomized into subgroups with different tapering or discontinuation strategies according to ASDAS at week 12. Patients in this arm were those who reached low disease activity (LDA) (1.3≤ASDAS\<2.1, group B) and designated to sequential tapering group (B1).

    Drug: tapering or discontinuation of etanercept

  • low disease activity - full dosage tapering

    Active AS patients with AS disease activity score (ASDAS)≥2.1 were recruited from ten hospitals, initially managed with ETN 50mg weekly for 12 weeks, and then randomized into subgroups with different tapering or discontinuation strategies according to ASDAS at week 12. Patients in this arm were those who reached low disease activity (LDA) (1.3≤ASDAS\<2.1, group B) and designated to delayed tapering group (B2) with extra 12 weeks of full dose ETN.

    Drug: tapering or discontinuation of etanercept

  • low disease activity - discontinuation

    Active AS patients with AS disease activity score (ASDAS)≥2.1 were recruited from ten hospitals, initially managed with ETN 50mg weekly for 12 weeks, and then randomized into subgroups with different tapering or discontinuation strategies according to ASDAS at week 12. Patients in this arm were those who reached low disease activity (LDA) (1.3≤ASDAS\<2.1, group B) and designated to discontinuation group (B3).

    Drug: tapering or discontinuation of etanercept

Interventions

  • Drugtapering or discontinuation of etanercept

    Active AS patients initially managed with ETN 50mg weekly for 12 weeks, and then randomized into subgroups with different tapering or discontinuation strategies according to ASDAS at week 12. Patients who achieved inactive disease (ASDAS\<1.3, group A) at week 12 were either assigned to sequential tapering group (A1) or discontinuation group (A2), and those who reached low disease activity (LDA) (1.3≤ASDAS\<2.1, group B) were designated to sequential tapering group (B1), delayed tapering group (B2) or discontinuation group (B3).

    Also known as: rhTNFR:Fc, Yisaipu

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Cumulative flare rates at week 48 with different tapering or discontinuation strategies

    Cumulative flare rates at week 48 with different tapering or discontinuation strategies

    Time frame: 48 weeks

07

Study locations

No study locations are listed for this record.

08

References and documents

Publications

  • Zhang T, Zhu J, He D, Chen X, Wang H, Zhang Y, Xue Q, Liu W, Xiang G, Li Y, Yu Z, Wu H. Disease activity guided stepwise tapering or discontinuation of rhTNFR:Fc, an etanercept biosimilar, in patients with ankylosing spondylitis: a prospective, randomized, open-label, multicentric study. Ther Adv Musculoskelet Dis. 2020 Jun 2;12:1759720X20929441. doi: 10.1177/1759720X20929441. eCollection 2020. PubMed 32536984 ↗
09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jul 1, 2021, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03880968
Lead sponsor
Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University
Collaborators
Shanghai Guanghua Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Affiliated Hospital of Jiaxing University, Shaoxing Second Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People's Hospital, Ningbo Medical Center Lihuili Hospital, Wenzhou Central Hospital, Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital, Shaoxing People's Hospital
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Mar 19, 2019
Start date
Mar 1, 2012
Primary completion
Sep 30, 2014
Completion
Sep 30, 2014
Last update
Jul 1, 2021

Study contacts

Huaxiang Wu
principal investigator · wuhx8855@sina.com

Oversight

FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Mar 2019. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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