Background: Gastrointestinal (GI) involvement is common in patients with SSc and may lead to weight loss and malnutrition. In the SENSCIS trial in patients with SSc-ILD, nintedanib reduced the rate of decline in forced vital capacity (FVC) (mL/year) over 52 weeks, with mainly GI adverse events. The Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST) was developed to identify adults who are at risk of malnutrition and has been used in studies of patients with SSc.

Objectives: To evaluate nutritional status over 52 weeks in the SENSCIS trial based on a modified MUST score.

Methods: The SENSCIS trial enrolled patients with SSc-ILD with first non-Raynaud symptom ≤7 years before screening, extent of fibrotic ILD ≥10% on HRCT and FVC ≥40% predicted. Patients who had taken a stable dose of mycophenolate for ≥6 months were eligible to participate. Patients were randomised to receive nintedanib 150 mg bid or placebo. Dose reductions to 100 mg bid and treatment interruptions were allowed to manage adverse events and specific recommendations were provided for the management of diarrhoea. We calculated a modified MUST score at baseline and weeks 12, 24, 36 and 52 based on (A) BMI, (B) weight loss (week 12 vs baseline; week 24 vs week 12; week 36 vs week 24; week 52 vs week 36), and (C) a surrogate for acute disease effect (if the patient had any serious adverse event that led to hospitalisation between weight assessments and received ≥1 medication from the WHO classification code for “solutions for parenteral nutrition” for ≥5 days). MUST score at baseline was based solely on BMI. With scores ranging from 0 to 6, the risk of malnutrition is defined as low (score = 0), medium (score = 1) or high (score ≥2).

Results: Among 576 patients who received nintedanib (n=288) or placebo (n=288), mean (SD) age at baseline was 54.0 (12.2) years, weight was 69.7 (15.9) kg and BMI was 25.9 (5.0) kg/m ² ; median time since onset of first non-Raynaud symptom was 3.4 years; and 75.2% of patients were female. In the nintedanib and placebo groups, respectively, MUST scores suggested that 74.0% and 78.1% of patients were at low risk of malnutrition at baseline and remained at low risk at their last measurement ( Table 1 ). At weeks 12 and 52, respectively, mean (SD) MUST scores were 0.3 (0.6) and 0.4 (0.7) in the nintedanib group and 0.2 (0.5) and 0.2 (0.6) in the placebo group. At weeks 12, 24, 36 and 52, respectively, the proportions of patients at low risk of malnutrition were 81.8%, 80.9%, 72.9% and 76.5% in the nintedanib group and 86.6%, 86.4%, 88.3% and 80.8% in the placebo group; the proportions at medium risk were 12.1%, 13.1%, 18.0% and 13.5% in the nintedanib group and 8.5%, 8.6%, 5.8% and 13.1% in the placebo group; and the proportions of patients at high risk were 6.1%, 5.6%, 8.3% and 9.6% in the nintedanib group and 4.9%, 4.3%, 4.7% and 5.4% in the placebo group.

Conclusion: In the SENSCIS trial, scores based on a modified MUST indicated that most patients treated with nintedanib were at low risk of malnutrition at baseline and remained at low risk over 52 weeks. The proportions of patients at high risk of malnutrition were low but were numerically greater in patients who received nintedanib than placebo. Management of disease manifestations and gastrointestinal adverse events that may be associated with weight loss is important to reduce the risk of malnutrition in patients with SSc-ILD treated with nintedanib.

Acknowledgements: The SENSCIS trial was funded by Boehringer Ingelheim. Medical writing support was provided by FleishmanHillard Fishburn, London, UK. The authors meet criteria for authorship as recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Disclosure of Interests: Elizabeth Volkmann Consultant of: Boehringer Ingelheim, Grant/research support from: Corbus and Forbius, Zsuzsanna McMahan: None declared, Sindhu Johnson Consultant of: Boehringer Ingelheim, CSL Behring and Ikaria, Grant/research support from: Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Corbus, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck and Roche, Vanessa Smith Speakers bureau: Boehringer Ingelheim and Janssen, Consultant of: Boehringer Ingelheim, Grant/research support from: Belgian Fund for Scientific Research in Rheumatic diseases (FWRO), Boehringer Ingelheim, Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) and Janssen, Stéphane Jouneau Speakers bureau: Actelion, AIRB, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, Genzyme, GlaxoSmithKline, LVL Mediphar, Mundipharma, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche and Sanofi, Consultant of: AIRB, Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis and Roche, Grant/research support from: AIRB, Boehringer Ingelheim, LVL Mediphar, Novartis and Roche, Corinna Miede Employee of: Currently an employee of mainanalytics GmbH, contracted by Boehringer Ingelheim, Margarida Alves Employee of: Currently an employee of Boehringer Ingelheim, Ariane Herrick Speakers bureau: Janssen, Consultant of: Boehringer Ingelheim, Camurus, CSL Behring and Gesynta Pharma, Grant/research support from: Actelion and Gesynta Pharma