ACTEMRA dose with prednisone : I was approved... - PMRGCAuk

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ACTEMRA dose with prednisone

Plains profile image
8 Replies

I was approved yesterday to start an infusion of ACTEMRA. The Rheumy is starting me on 500 mg. How much will this reduce my prednisone? I have suspected GCA with PMR. I have a trip planned in August to Ireland but will not be back by my infusion date. What will happen? Will I have to take more prednisone since I won’t have access to the ACTEMRA?

Since I did not start it yet should I push the date out to day of the week it would work for my trip?

Thank you for any experiences or thoughts.

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Plains
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8 Replies
nallufl24 profile image
nallufl24

I reduced my prednisone dose to 0 after 7 months of Actemra. I was on 35 mg when I started. I’m going on a trip overseas in 2 weeks and I will also miss my infusion time by 1 week. I told my rheumatologist and he said I should be fine. I sure hope so

Plains profile image
Plains in reply tonallufl24

thank you so much snd let me know please how you make out. My trip is not until August! Have fun!

nallufl24 profile image
nallufl24 in reply toPlains

I will definitely let you know

PMRpro profile image
PMRproAmbassador

It doesn't work like that - it takes time to start to act and must be repeated - in your case with an infusion, monthly - ongoing. I use weekly pre-prepared injections which are fixed at 162mg and my rheumatologist said to wait at least a couple of months for them to start acting well before starting to reduce slowly. It isn't a case of you have the infusion and can just reduce the pred dose by x amount. You still have to taper it slowly because everyone is different. With GCA about half of patients still require some pred, commonly about 8-10mg because the production of IL-6 which is what Actemra works on is only one of at least 3 different mechanisms involved in GCA. I have reduced from 19mg to 8mg in 6 months.

Plains profile image
Plains in reply toPMRpro

thank you. So if I get the infusion 5 days late what will happen? If you kniw

PMRpro profile image
PMRproAmbassador in reply toPlains

Probably won;t make much difference - have you asked your doctor what they think?

Plains profile image
Plains in reply toPMRpro

thank you

potterylady profile image
potterylady in reply toPMRpro

Great information. Thank you!

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