Posts by John H. Stone, MD, MPH
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Advances in Rheumatology Course: Q&A With John Stone, MD, MPH
For more than 40 years, Mass General Brigham's Advances in Rheumatology course has led the field in educating practitioners on treating rheumatic conditions. John Stone, MD, MPH, co-director of this year's course, discusses the latest rheumatology research and explains what makes this course stand out.
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Initiate Weekly Tocilizumab As Soon As Possible in Giant Cell Arteritis
John H. Stone, MD, MPH, director of Clinical Rheumatology, and colleagues suggest treatment with weekly tocilizumab delays time to flare and reduces glucocorticoid exposure in patients with giant cell arteritis, regardless of their duration of disease before tocilizumab initiation.
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Study Seeks FDA-approved Therapy for IgG4-related Disease
Massachusetts General Hospital is conducting an NIH-funded clinical trial exploring elotuzumab as a treatment for IgG4-related disease.
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Transforming Understanding of IGg4-Related Systemic Disease
A Massachusetts General Hospital rheumatologist is leading efforts to recognize and treat previously misdiagnosed and misunderstood IGg4-related systemic disease.
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Mass General Team Overcomes COVID Hurdles to Fast-Track Tocilizumab Trial
After setting up a drug clinical trial in record time during extraordinary circumstances to answer an important clinical question, a Massachusetts General Hospital team found that tocilizumab does not help patients with COVID-19.
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Treatment for IgG4-related Disease to Improve Within Five Years
Three drugs currently in clinical trials could lead to improvements in treatment for IgG4-related disease over the next three to five years.
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Tocilizumab Therapy Doesn't Improve Outcomes in Moderately Ill Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients
A Massachusetts General Hospital led clinical trial found that the drug tocilizumab, an IL-6 blocker, does not reduce the need for breathing assistance with mechanical ventilation or prevent death in moderately ill hospitalized patients with COVID-19.
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First Classification Criteria Developed for IgG4–Related Disease
The American College of Rheumatology and the European League Against Rheumatism that includes Massachusetts General Hospital physicians have developed and validated classification criteria for IgG4–related disease in a large cohort of patients.
Biography
Dr. John Stone is the director of Clinical Rheumatology at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His work focuses on vasculitis, a group of inflammatory diseases that target blood vessels, as well as on a newly-described multi-organ condition known as IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD).
Dr. Stone graduated from Harvard Medical School, completed his internal medicine training at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and a rheumatology fellowship at the University of California-San Francisco. Before coming to Mass General, he co-founded and directed the Vasculitis Center at Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Stone is the principal investigator in the Rituximab in ANCA-associated Vasculitis (RAVE) clinical trial, which led to two New England Journal of Medicine publications. The RAVE trial was the first trial to serve as the sole basis of approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a new use of this drug, changing the standard of care for this disease. Further regulatory approvals for Rituximab use in vasculitis are now anticipated in approximately 90 countries on the strength of this single trial.
Dr. Stone’s research group has also broadened knowledge of IgG4-RD, a condition unknown in the U.S. before Dr. Stone’s work. He has become the world’s leading investigator in this disease, and hosted the first two international symposia on this disease (Boston, 2011; Hawaii, 2014). He has assembled a creative research group to tackle this emerging condition, the study of which is revealing important insights into human immunology. The IgG4-RD Research Group at Mass General has identified key organ system manifestations of this disease and was the first to recognize the efficacy of B cell depletion as a treatment strategy. Finally, in studying patients with IgG4-RD, Dr. Stone’s group has identified a novel T lymphocyte that may drive the intractable condition of fibrosis across an array of human diseases.
Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology
The Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology at Massachusetts General Hospital provides leading-edge treatment and transformative care to patients with rheumatic disease and autoimmune conditions.