Long-Term Effectiveness and Reasons for Discontinuation of Dupilumab in Patients With Atopic Dermatitis.

Importance: Limited data are available on the long-term effectiveness and safety of dupilumab for atopic dermatitis (AD) in daily practice. Objective: To evaluate clinical effectiveness and reasons for discontinuation of dupilumab treatment in children, adults, and older adults with AD with up to 5 years of treatment in daily practice. Design, Setting, and Participants: This prospective multicenter cohort study was conducted using the BioDay registry (4 academic and 10 nonacademic hospitals in the Netherlands) to identify patients with AD of all ages who were treated with dupilumab between October 2017 and December 2022. Main Outcomes and Measures: Clinical effectiveness was evaluated by the Eczema Area and Severity Index (EASI), Investigator Global Assessment (IGA), and numeric rating scale (NRS) for pruritus, stratified by children (<18 years), adults (18-64 years), and older adults (≥65 years). In addition, time to response, treatment responders, EASI subscores, second treatment episodes, and thymus- and activation-related chemokine and eosinophil levels were assessed. For patients who discontinued dupilumab, the reason for discontinuation was evaluated. Results: In total, 1286 patients with AD (median [IQR] age, 38 [26-54] years; 726 [56.6%] male) were treated with dupilumab, including 130 children, 1025 adults, and 131 older adults. The median (IQR) follow-up time was 87.5 (32.0-157.0) weeks. Most patients maintained controlled AD, with EASI of 7 or lower and NRS for pruritus of 4 or lower varying between 78.6% and 92.3% and 72.2% and 88.2% for up to 5 years of treatment, respectively, while up to 70.5% of all patients prolonged the dosing interval to mostly 300 mg every 3 or 4 weeks. Mean EASI and NRS for pruritus were 2.7 (95% CI, 1.2-4.2) and 3.5 (95% CI, 2.7-4.3), respectively, after 5 years of treatment. Statistically significant differences between age groups were found over time for EASI and IGA; however, differences were rather small (week 52: EASI, 0.3-1.6; IGA, 0.12-0.26). No statistically significant differences between age groups were found for NRS for pruritus. Median thymus- and activation-related chemokine levels considerably decreased from 1751 pg/mL (95% CI, 1614-1900 pg/mL) to 390 pg/mL (95% CI, 368-413 pg/mL) after 6 months of treatment and remained low. Median eosinophil levels temporarily increased up to week 16, with a subsequently statistically significant decrease over time. In total, 306 patients (23.8%) discontinued dupilumab after a median (IQR) of 54.0 (29.0-110.00) weeks, with adverse events among 98 patients (7.6%) and ineffectiveness among 85 patients (6.6%) as the most frequently reported reasons. Forty-one patients (3.2%) restarted dupilumab, and most of these patients recaptured response. Conclusions and Relevance: In this cohort study with up to 5 years of follow-up, dupilumab maintained its clinical effectiveness, while two-thirds of patients tapered to a dosing interval of every 3 or 4 weeks. Treatment was discontinued in 23.8% of patients mainly due to adverse events and/or ineffectiveness.

Dupilumab provides sustained effectiveness on patient-reported outcomes and favorable safety in patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis: Up to 5-year results from the daily practice BioDay registry.

BACKGROUND: Long-term daily practice data on patient-reported benefits of dupilumab for atopic dermatitis (AD) remains limited. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and the safety of dupilumab in patients with moderate-to-severe AD over a follow-up period of up to 5 years. METHODS: Data were extracted from the prospective, multicenter BioDay registry (October 2017-2022) of patients with moderate-to-severe AD treated with dupilumab in daily practice. RESULTS: In total 1223 patients, 1108 adults and 115 pediatric patients were included. After ≥1 year of treatment, mean Patient-Oriented Eczema Measure (POEM), Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), Numeric rating scale (NRS)-pruritus ranged between 7.8 and 8.7, 3.5 and 4.2, and 2.9 and 3.1 in adults, respectively, whilst these patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) ranged between 8.9 and 10.9, 4.4 and 6.4, and 3.0 and 3.7 in pediatric patients, respectively. At follow-up, overall work impairment decreased from 40.1% to 16.3% to 13.3% in adults. Furthermore, class I obesity and itch-dominant patients generally had less favorable treatment response. Of all patients, 66.8% reported ≥1 adverse event, with conjunctivitis being the most common (33.7%). LIMITATIONS: The overall percentage of missing values for selected PROMs was 26% in adults and 46% in pediatric patients. CONCLUSION: In addition to favorable safety, dupilumab has demonstrated sustained effectiveness across various PROMs, underscoring the treatment benefits from patients' perspectives.