Correspondence on 'Five-year treat-to-target outcomes after methotrexate induction therapy with or without other csDMARDs and temporary glucocorticoids for rheumatoid arthritis in the CareRA trial'.

The 5-year follow-up data of the Care-RA cohort are interesting.1 However, a few points merit consideration and clarification. Findings in the high-risk group reaffirm the fact that upfront combination disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) are not needed even in patients of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with poor prognostic factors, provided a treat-to-target strategy is followed. However, we wish to draw attention to the low-risk group which compared initial methotrexate (MTX) monotherapy to MTX+prednisolone bridging (COBRA-Slim). The results in the low-risk group seem counterintuitive to previous landmark trials (including the BeSt and the …