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RRMS Patients Treated with Natalizumab Report Better Outcomes and Treatment Satisfaction Than Patients Treated with Ocrelizumab
Natalizumab and ocrelizumab are both highly efficacious disease modifying therapies (DMTs) for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). Currently, there is limited comparative patient-reported data on these two therapies. Although one recent real-world survey showed that natalizumab-treated RRMS patients reported better outcomes on key physical, emotional, and cognitive domains than those treated with other DMTs, the percentage of ocrelizumab patients participating in this survey was small.
Objectives:
To describe survey results assessing patients’ self-reported changes in their disease activity, symptoms, and social roles and activities since starting natalizumab or ocrelizumab.
Methods:
RRMS patients aged ≥21 years completed a voluntary anonymous questionnaire. Questions included demographics, disease and DMT history, and self-assessments of disease activity, physical functioning, emotional well-being, cognitive ability, social roles and activities, and treatment satisfaction with their current DMT. The proportion of RRMS patients with different responses (improved, no change, worsened) were compared between those taking either natalizumab or ocrelizumab using a chi-squared or Fisher’s exact test.
Results:
The survey was conducted from Dec 6, 2021, to Jan 24, 2022. The analysis included 68 and 117 RRMS patients taking natalizumab and ocrelizumab, respectively. Baseline characteristics were well balanced with the exception that natalizumab patients were younger than ocrelizumab patients (47.1 vs 51.7 years; P=0.0094). More natalizumab- than ocrelizumab-treated patients reported improvement in disease activity (83.8% vs 59.8%; P<0.0001), emotional health (61.8% vs 34.2%; P=0.0013), physical symptoms (63.2% vs 43.6%; P=0.0308), cognitive symptoms (55.9% vs 33.3%; P=0.0065), and social roles and activities (61.8% vs 36.8%; P=0.0043). A greater proportion of natalizumab- than ocrelizumab-treated patients reported that their DMT met or exceeded treatment expectations (% vs %; P=0.0241).
Conclusions:
RRMS patients treated with natalizumab more commonly reported improvements in their disease activity, symptoms (ie, physical, emotional, and cognitive), social roles and activities, and treatment satisfaction than those treated with ocrelizumab. These results provide important comparative patient-reported data for natalizumab and ocrelizumab and may be useful to health care providers and their patients with RRMS.