Rheumavax is immunotherapy treatment that boosts your body’s natural defenses. It's designed for people who either have certain genes that make them more likely to have rheumatoid arthritis (RA), or who have anti-CCP in their blood. Doctors typically test anti-CCP levels early on in the disease to predict how bad your RA might get.
Rheumavax should work for most people with RA. The vaccine works by training your immune system not to “see” the peptide that typically triggers RA. To help the learning process along, a doctor takes a sample of your blood and takes out cells called dendrites and changes them so they react differently. The Rheumavax vaccine is a single shot of these changed cells back into your body.