Secukinumab for the treatment of palmoplantar psoriasis: a 2-year, multicenter, real-life observational study

ABSTRACT

Background

Palmoplantar psoriasis is difficult to treat and often recalcitrant to conventional therapies. Clinical trials have demonstrated the efficacy and safety of secukinumab for this debilitating psoriasis form, but real-life evidence is currently limited. Therefore, here we described the outcomes of patients treated with secukinumab in clinical practice.

Research Design and Methods

This was a real-life, retrospective, observational study involving patients with palmoplantar psoriasis treated with secukinumab (300 mg, subcutaneously) at seven dermatologic clinics in Italy. Treatment effectiveness was evaluated based on the changes of the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) and palmoplantar (pp) PASI during treatment and by recording safety and tolerability issues over 104 weeks.

Results

Forty-three patients initiated treatment with secukinumab. Previous treatments included topical and systemic therapies; half of patients had already tried one or more biologics. Secukinumab improved mean PASI rapidly and substantially with a 78.2% decrease at 16 weeks. Mean ppPASI also improved substantially, but more gradually, with reductions of 55.0% and 79.3% at 16 and 104 weeks, respectively. Approximately half of patients achieved complete skin clearance at 40 weeks. Secukinumab was well tolerated and no relevant treatment-related adverse events were reported.

Conclusions

Secukinumab appears to be effective for the treatment of palmoplantar psoriasis also in the real-life setting.

KEYWORDS:

• Effectiveness
• observational
• palmoplantar psoriasis
• psoriasis
• real-life
• real-world
• secukinumab

Acknowledgments

We thank Lorenza Lanini, who provided medical writing assistance on behalf of Health Publishing & Services Srl. This unconditional support was funded by Novartis Farma SpA.

Author’s contributions statement

Marco Galluzzo, Marina Talamonti, Luca Bianchi and Francesca Prignano conceived and designed the study; all authors recruited patients and were involved in data acquisition; Marco Galluzzo and Marina Talamonti were involved in the analysis and interpretation of the data; all authors contributed to drafting the paper and revising it critically for intellectual content. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Declaration of interests

The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript.

Reviewer Disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial relationships or otherwise to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not fundedT.