Predicting treatment response
Many effective treatment options are available for patients with rheumatic diseases. However, it is not currently possible to determine in advance which treatment will be most effective for a given individual.
If this were possible it would allow better targeting of treatments, reducing non-response rates and unnecessary exposure to sub-optimal drug regimes.
Identification of markers of treatment response is therefore a high research priority.
The big questions we seek to answer are:
- Are genetic, genomic, serological, proteomic, psychological and other factors useful to predict response to treatment with biologic drugs?
- Can we use molecular approaches to better characterise on-treatment disease activity in patients with rheumatic diseases?