The Use of Tofacitinib Has a Potential Effect on Improving the Outcomes of Melanoma Differentiation–Associated Gene 5–Related Interstitial Lung Disease

Abstract

We read with great interest the recent retrospective analysis by Fan and colleagues on the outcomes of tofacitinib (TOF) or tacrolimus (TAC) in combination with glucocorticoids for melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 (MDA5)-related interstitial lung disease (MDA5-ILD), published inThe Journal of Rheumatology.1The authors mainly investigated whether TOF exposure was associated with reduced mortality at 6 months and 1 year, and also compared the incidence of adverse events and discontinuation rates in the TOF and TAC groups for the treatment of MDA5-ILD.

Drs. Dai and Fan reply

“…We thank Wang et al 1 for their interest and suggestions on our study on melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5-related interstitial lung disease (MDA5-ILD), which highlighted that tofacitinib (TOF) use might have a potential effect on improving the outcomes of MDA5-ILD. 2 We completely agree with their valuable suggestions.…”

“…Third, as suggested by Wang et al, 1 we reviewed and collected comorbidities including hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases (including coronary heart disease, angina, atrial fibrillation, valvular heart disease, and cardiac dysfunction), and cancers. No significant differences were found in the comorbidities between the 2 groups.…”