Head and neck atopic dermatitis improves with upadacitinib treatment

Key takeaways:

• Patients with head and neck AD experienced greater improvement with upadacitinib than placebo.
• EASI, DLQI and itch scores were all improved for patients with mild, moderate and severe disease.

Treatment with 15 mg or 30 mg of upadacitinib showed improvement for patients with atopic dermatitis affecting the head and neck regions, according to a poster presented at the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology Congress.

“Research shows that AD in the head and neck region can have a significant impact on symptom frequency and quality of life for patients — often experiencing emotional distress and mental health issues, along with physical discomfort in highly visible areas,” Kilian EyerichMD, PhD, chair and professor of the department of dermatology and venerology at the University of Freiburg, told Healio. “Plus, these areas have traditionally been challenging to treat with traditional therapies, which can be frustrating for patients.”

Everich and colleagues examined data from 1,682 patients enrolled in the randomized, placebo-controlled, phase 3 Measure Up 1 and Measure Up 2 trials who had head and neck involvement.

Patients were randomly assigned to receive upadacitinib (Rinvoq, AbbVie) 15 mg (n = 557), upadacitinib 30 mg (n = 567) or placebo (n = 558) once daily.

For patients with moderate disease at baseline, a head and neck EASI score of less than 1 was achieved by 75.9% of the 30 mg group and 67.8% of the 15 mg group compared with 27.4% of the placebo group at week 16. For those with severe disease at baseline, 63.2% and 47.2% of the two study groups achieved this benchmark, respectively, vs. 10.5% of those on placebo.

In the 30 mg group, EASI 90 was achieved by 65.7% of those with mild disease, 61.6% of those with moderate disease and 60.3% with severe disease. The 15 mg group had 54.7%, 48.1% and 43.7% achieve these results, respectively. This compared with 12.1%, 6.5% and 3.9% of those taking placebo.

Additionally, an improvement of at least four points in DLQI score from baseline was reported in more patients taking upadacitinib in either dosage compared with placebo, and itch was reduced by greater proportions in both study groups as well.

“Despite taking steps to manage their condition, many AD patients continue to suffer from debilitating symptoms that affect critical aspects of their everyday lives,” Eyerich said. “This new analysis demonstrates that a targeted systemic therapy, such as upadacitinib, can help address these unmet needs with stringent treatment goals to help reach optimized clinical outcomes for patients.”

For more information:

Kilian EyerichMD, PhD, can be reached at kilian.eyerich@uniklinik-freiburg.de.