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My understanding is that the biologic blocks the effects of the disease while being given but is not a treatment or cure in the usual sense of a drug that directly attacks and terminates the disease process. Thus, we're all in an illustration "remission" while we're on it. I've been told to eventually expect occasions when I'll stop taking it so we can get accurate inflammation markers labs and clinically assess. And yes, long term Kevzara is far preferred over Prednisone from a risk benefit calculation.
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I would be interested in your opinion about something. Nobody seems to have any solid ideas about something my rheumatologist told me.
My rheumatologist believes that if my autoimmune conditions had been brought under control sooner and not allowed to persist maybe I could get off Actemra. He said at this stage my immune system has developed a long term memory for what it has been attacking for so many years. Apparently my immune system won't forget about what it has been attacking anytime soon. The longer the underlying inflammatory condition is completely stopped, the better my chance of eventually getting off Actemra. He implied Actemra is stopping my immune response much better than Prednisone ever did. Prednisone works quickly but it should only be use in the short term as a bridge to more effective treatment.
The problem with prednisone is that it only decreases the autoimmune response and doesn't stop inflammation completely. When we take prednisone, we still have "chronic inflammation" that recurs every day. Whatever "triggers" an autoimmune condition needs to be stopped quickly and "reset" or otherwise the immune system's propensity to form a long term memory takes hold which results in a need for long term Prednisone. We flare because of immune memory and we can't get off prednisone because of adrenal insufficiency --- double trouble.
He said "deactivating the memory cells" in autoimmune conditions will be the battleground in the future.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4449764/
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I was blown away by all of this! I was led to believe that taking Prednisone and waiting for PMR to "burn itself out" was the way to go. Nothing I can do about it now. In any case, prednisone was the "only option" when I was first diagnosed.
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Illusory not illustrated.