Prolonged remission in established rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is extremely rare. During a six year follow up of 458 patients Wolfe and Hawley1 observed two prolonged remissions of more than 48 months, and concluded that ‘once established, RA tends to remain, interrupted briefly in a small minority of patients by remission of disease.’ However prolonged remissions or cures have been described as secondary to Cushing’s disease² and human immunodeficiency virus infection.3 ,4 We have observed a case of cure of RA accompanied by, and probably secondary to the development of γ heavy chain disease …