The 2005 International Symposium on Advances in Targeted Therapies: What have we learned in the 2000s and where are we going?

This essay summarises a personal perspective on where we have got to in the five years since the turn of the last century. The focus is on advances in knowledge of antitumour necrosis factor (anti-TNF) therapy of rheumatoid arthritis and other chronic immune-inflammatory rheumatic diseases. The accumulating knowledge is clarifying the scope and limitations of efficacy, safety, and durability of these agents. It is defining the unmet needs of patients and communities worldwide for the future. The call is for progress in providing more cost-effective advances in therapeutics that not only interrupt the disease process long term but also reverse the anatomical and functional consequences of disease and the impairment in quality of life.