Dimethyl fumarate or teriflunomide for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis: a meta-analysis of post-marketing studies

Abstract

Abstract Objective. In the absence of head-to-head comparison trials, we aimed to compare the effectiveness of two largely prescribed oral platform disease-modifying treatments for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, namely dimethyl fumarate (DMF) and teriflunomide (TRF). Methods. We searched scientific databases to identify real world studies reporting a direct comparison of DMF versus TRF. We fitted inverse-variance weighted meta-analyses with random-effects models to estimated risk ratios (RR) of relapse, confirmed disability worsening (CDW) and treatment discontinuation. Results. Quantitative synthesis was accomplished on 14 articles yielding 11,889 and 8,133 patients treated with DMF and TRF, respectively, with a follow-up ranging from 1 to 2.8 years. DMF was slightly more effective than TRF in reducing the short-term relapse risk (RR = –0.08, p = 0.01). Meta-regression analyses showed that such between-arm difference tends to fade in studies including younger patients and a higher proportion of treatment naïve subjects. There was no difference between DMF and TRF on the short-term risk of CDW (RR = 0.99, p = 0.69). The risk of treatment discontinuation was slightly lower with TRF than with DMF (RR = 1.07; p= 0.007) after removing one study with relevant risk of publication bias that altered the final pooled result, as also confirmed by a leave-one-out sensitivity analysis. Discussion. Our findings suggest that DMF is associated with a lower risk of relapses than TRF, with more nuanced differences in younger naïve patients. On the other hand, TRF is associated with a lower risk of treatment discontinuation.