Quality of life measures improve with topical tirbanibulin for actinic keratosis
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Key takeaways:
- Patients and clinicians agreed overall skin appearance and texture were improved with tirbanibulin treatment.
- Physical, emotional and functional measures were also significantly improved with treatment.
Actinic keratosis lesions were reduced and quality of life improved following once-daily topical tirbanibulin treatment, according to a study.
“Actinic keratoses (AKs) are epithelial lesions caused by ultraviolet radiation and cumulative sun exposure that have the potential to progress to invasive as squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) if left untreated,” Todd Schlesinger, MD, of the Clinical Research Center of the Carolinas, and colleagues wrote. “AKs appear mainly in visible areas impairing patients’ quality of life (QoL).”
The multi-center, single-arm, prospective cohort study included 290 patients. Efficacy results were previously reported and this analysis focused on the QoL impact. Researchers used Skindex-16 to assess QoL. At weeks 8 and 24, they additionally assessed patient-reported outcomes and clinician-reported outcomes, safety and tolerability.
At week 8, a statistically significant decrease (P < .0001) in Skindex-16 scores was reported in patients treated with tirbanibulin among , physical, emotional and functional domains. When divided into subgroups, the statistically significant decrease (P < .03) remained for all groups except for the functioning domain in patients aged 49 years or younger, which the researchers attributed to the small sample size of this subgroup.
Convenience was favorable for both patients and clinicians, with mean scores of 85 (standard deviation [SD], 14.6) and 84.5 (SD, 15.6) on the nine-item Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication (TSQM-9), which has a score range of 0-100. Effectiveness, also measured on the TSQM-9 scale, was 74.3 (SD, 21.2) for clinicians and 73.3 (SD, 21.3) for patients, whereas global satisfaction was 74.9 (SD, 23.9) and 72 (SD, 24.6), respectively.
Additionally, patient- and clinician-reported results were similar, with 83.6% of clinicians and 78.5% of patients reporting a marked improvement in overall skin appearance at week 24 and 68.5% and 73.3% reporting being extremely/very satisfied with the treatment’s physical results, respectively. Satisfaction with skin texture was also similar, with 77.3% of clinicians and 78.4% of patients being extremely/very satisfied.
Adverse events were recorded in 5% of patients, with the most common being erythema (47.6%) and flaking/ scaling (49.6%). Although six patients reported serious adverse events, the researchers reported none were related to treatment.
“In real-world community practice, once-daily tirbanibulin ointment for 5 consecutive days demonstrated effectiveness, favorable safety and tolerability profile in the treatment of AK on the face or scalp, as evidenced in phase 3 clinical trials,” the authors wrote.
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