Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA) is an inflammatory condition estimated to affect around 150,000 people in the UK. Two thirds will suffer progressive joint damage with associated disability. A significant proportion of patients require treatment with biologic therapies as conventional disease-modifying drugs are not always effective. However there are an increasing number of different biologic and targeted synthetic DMARDs available and we cannot currently predict which people will respond to which of these therapies. Around 30% of patients do not respond well to their first biologic therapy and need to switch to a different mode of action. Personalised medicine to select the right biologic for each patient offers a way forward as discussed in a recent article by Hussein Al-Mossawi and Laura Coates from NDORMS https://www.nature.com/articles/s41584-018-0043-3
Dr Coates and the Ox-PACE team are currently recruiting to MONITOR a cohort study for PsA patients from which 2 interventional Trials Within Cohort (TWiCs) are due to start soon, SPEED and POISE. These studies will test the personalisation of therapy based on clinical disease characteristics with the aim of improving disease control and patient’s quality of life.