Table 2.
Patient characteristics.
| OCR | OFA | RTX | All | p* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | 166 | 44 | 52 | 262 | |
| Sex, female, n (%) | 107 (64.5) | 33 (75) | 25 (48.1) | 165 (63) | 0.02 |
| Age at diagnosis, years, median (range) | 33 (13; 72) | 31.5 (17; 65) | 54 (17; 74) | 35 (13; 74) | < 0.001 |
| Age at symptom onset, years, median (range) | 32 (13; 65) | 29.5 (17; 65) | 54 (5; 74) | 34 (5; 74) | < 0.001 |
| Age at start of therapy, years, median (range) | 46 (18; 75) | 37 (18; 67) | 54.5 (18; 74) | 47 (18; 75) | < 0.001 |
| Disease group, n (%) | |||||
| RMS | 139 (83.7) | 44 (100) | 1 (2) | 184 (70.2) | |
| PPMS | 27 (16.3) | 27 (10.3) | |||
| AE | 15 (28.8) | 15 (5.7) | |||
| Cerebral Vasculitis | 12 (23.1) | 12 (4.6) | |||
| Other1 | 24 (46.1) | 24 (9.2) | |||
| Baseline EDSS Median (range) | 3.5 (0 – 8) | 2.25 (0.5 - 7) | < 0.001 | ||
| Baseline EDSS (RMS only) Median (range) |
3.25 (0 – 8) | 2.25 (0.5 – 7) | 0.002 | ||
| Discontinuation of therapy, n (%) | 51 (30.7) | 7 (15.9) | 26 (50) | 84 (32.1) | 0.001 |
| Reason for discontinuation, n (%) | |||||
| Relapses/worsening | 5 (12.8) | 2 (28.5) | 8 (30.8) | ||
| Infection | 10 (19.6)7 | 1 (14.3) | 2 (7.7) | 13 (15.5) | |
| Patient’s request | (17.9) | 4 (57.1) | 5 (19) | 12 (14.3) | |
| Pregnancy | 4 (10.3) | 2 (7.7) | 12 (14.3) | ||
| Other adverse event | 10 (19.6) | 5 (19.2) | 4 (4.8) | ||
| Other3 | 3 (5.9) | 4 (15.4) | 12 (14.3) | ||
| Not known | 12 (23.5) | 9 (10.7) | |||
| 22 (26.2) | |||||
| Diagnosis of further autoimmune disease during treatment, n (%) |
3 (1.8) | 0 (0) | 5 (9.6) | 8 (3.1) | 0.007 |
| Diagnosis of malignoma4 during treatment, n (%) | 3 (1.8) | 1 (2.3) | 4 (7.7) | 8 (3.1) | 0.093 |
| Follow-up months, median (range) |
39 (3; 78) | 15 (3; 45) | 42 (3; 117) | 36 (3; 117) | |
OCR, Ocrelizumab; OFA, Ofatumumab; RTX, Rituximab, RMS, relapsing multiple sclerosis, PPMS, primary progredient multiple sclerosis, AE, autoimmune encephalitis.
1other disease groups were Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disease (n = 5), autoimmune neuropathy (n = 4), MOGAD (n = 3), myositis (n = 3), myasthenia gravis (n = 2), paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration (n = 2), Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome (n = 1), antiphospholipid antibody syndrome (n = 1), systemic lupus erythematodes (n = 1), chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia (n = 1), steroid responsive encephalopathy associated with autoimmune thyroiditis (n = 1);.
2other adverse events were allergy (n = 1), infusion reactions (n = 2), T cell defect (n = 2), macula edema (n = 1), severe hypogammaglobulinemia (n = 2), hyponatremia (n = 2), agranulocytosis (n = 1);.
3other reasons for discontinuations of therapy were death (not related to therapy, n = 3), malignoma (n = 3), change of diagnosis (n = 2), change to another BCDT (n = 1), dementia (n = 1);.
4types of malignomas were prostate carcinoma (n = 2), myeloma (n = 2), urothelial carcinoma (n = 1), endometrial cancer (n = 1), mamma carcinoma (n = 1), bronchial carcinoma (n = 1).
*P-values were calculated by Mann Whitney U test, Kruskal Wallis test, and chi square test, respectively.
Bold values are statistically significant (p < 0.05).