[Factors associated with quality of life among patients with psoriasis. Comparison between psoriasis-specific QOL measures and generic QOL measures].

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to determine factors associated with QOL in patients with psoriasis. For comparison, we used psoriasis-specific and generic QOL measures. METHODS: The targeted participants were 228 patients diagnosed as having psoriasis. Our questionnaire had two versions, the first one answered by the physician, and the second one answered by the patients themselves. The physician's questionnaire collected data concerning demographic characteristics, complications, health habits, affected body surface area; BSA, PASI and so on. The patients' questionnaire asked for Self-BSA, Self-PASI, PDI, SF-36 and so on. RESULTS: Questionnaires were returned by 216 patients. In consideration of some missing data on PDI and SF-36, the data for only 200 patients were used for this analysis. Concerning PDI, significant sex differences in mean scores were shown in areas of 'daily activities' and 'work'. Concerning SF-36, significant sex differences were shown in all areas except for 'general health'. Multiple regression analysis suggested that for male patients the PDI total score was related to age, PASI and Self-PASI; the SF-36 total score was related to PASI and Self-PASI. For female patients, although it was suggested that the PDI total score was related to PASI and Self-PASI, the SF-36 total score was related to Self-PASI only. On the whole, PDI was related much stronger for PASI and Self-PASI than was SF-36. Furthermore, in female patients the Self-PASI score was strongly related to QOL scores. Therefore considering QOL for female patients, Self-PASI is possibly more useful than PASI. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that severity of disease, sex and age are associated with QOL. PDI and Self-PASI are useful tools for the assessment and care of psoriasis patients considering QOL.

Switching of biologics in psoriasis: Reasons and results.

Efficacy and safety profiles of biologics have been established for moderate to severe psoriasis. However, inefficacy or adverse events sometimes require changing the treatment to other biologics. Here, we examine the effectiveness of this strategy. We retrospectively investigated cases requiring switching biologics. We enrolled 275 psoriatic patients treated with biologics between January 2010 and December 2014 in our hospital. Of these, 51 required a switch to another biologic. First-line therapies were infliximab (IFX, n = 26), adalimumab (ADA, n = 18) and ustekinumab (UST, n = 7), and second-line therapies were IFX (n = 5), ADA (n = 21) and UST (n = 25). Reasons for switching were inefficacy (n = 38), adverse events (n = 11) and others (n = 2). The details were primary failure (n = 15), secondary failure (n = 23) and infusion reactions (n = 8). In 49 patients who switched biologics due to inefficacy and adverse events, the mean Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) score at week 16 was 4.3 for first-line therapies and 2.9 for second-line therapies (P < 0.05). Switching to a second biologic therapy to address the first's inefficacy or adverse events often results in significant improvement in moderate to severe psoriasis.

Four cases of Japanese patients with psoriatic arthritis in whom effective treatments by anti-tumor necrosis factor-α drugs were evaluated by magnetic resonance imaging together with improvement of skin lesions.

Because psoriatic skin lesions of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) usually precede the onset of joint symptom, dermatologists are in an ideal position to screen and find individuals with PsA early in the disease course. There have been no reports from the dermatology field evaluating the effect of anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α drugs on joint disorders using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in PsA patients. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the effectiveness of MRI in the evaluation of anti-TNF-α drugs on joint disease of Japanese PsA patients. Data were collected from four adult Japanese male PsA patients. MRI of the affected hand was performed at baseline and 1-7 months after infliximab or adalimumab treatment. T1 -weighted gadolinium-enhanced images with fat suppression were acquired in the coronal, sagittal and/or axial planes. We determined the apparent improvement of synovitis, periarticular inflammation, tenosynovitis and/or bone marrow edema by MRI after anti-TNF-α treatments in all the patients together with the improvement of skin lesions. We also determined in one patient that these symptoms detected by MRI before treatment were alleviated within 1 month and had disappeared 6 months after treatment, suggesting the potentially early detection of the effect of anti-TNF-α drugs on joint disease. We present four cases of Japanese patients with PsA in whom effective treatments by anti-TNF-α drugs were evaluated by contrast-enhanced MRI. This imaging enables dermatologists and radiologists to assess and monitor early inflammatory changes, and to grant PsA patients earlier access to modern treatment such as biologics.

Ustekinumab treatment in patients with psoriasis undergoing hemodialysis.

Patients with psoriasis undergoing hemodialysis have additional difficulties in treatment compared with general patients. Conventional treatments such as cyclosporin, retinoids and methotrexate are not widely administrated due to the chances of an increase in adverse effects and the possibility of risk to patient survival. Recently, biologic treatments have been recognized as having sufficient efficacy for severe psoriasis with low incidence of organ toxicities. For this reason, biologic treatments may be more preferable for patients on hemodialysis; however, there is not sufficient evidence. We have treated three patients with psoriasis with ustekinumab for 1 year, who had been undergoing hemodialysis. They were previously treated with conventional treatments before ustekinumab treatments; however, they did not respond to these treatments sufficiently. Following treatment with ustekinumab, rapid and maintained improvement in psoriasis was observed. Over the course of treatments, two of the three patients encountered no adverse events during their first year of treatment. The other patient discontinued ustekinumab due to elevated levels of C-reactive protein. These findings suggest that ustekinumab may be an appropriate treatment for patients undergoing hemodialysis who are suffering from psoriasis. However, the risk of developing infection remains higher than in general patients.

Risk of herpes zoster in psoriatic patients undergoing biologic treatment.

The advent of biologic treatments for psoriasis has many benefits, such as considerably improved efficacy and lower frequency of organ toxicity. While the frequency of organ dysfunction during biologic treatment is considered to be low, the incidence of infection is slightly higher. Patients on biologic treatments are regularly monitored to be able to detect the onset of infection, because there is evidence of an increase in the risk of bacterial and fungal infections during treatment. A total of 144 patients who had received biologic treatment for a year were retrospectively examined. We encountered four cases, including one of 39 patients on infliximab treatment, two of 65 patients on adalimumab treatment and one of 40 patients on ustekinumab treatment, who developed herpes zoster (HZ) within 1 year of starting biologic treatment. Our experience shows that this incidence could be higher than that in the general population, although the data is retrospective. On consideration of previous studies and our own experiences, the risk of HZ occurrence during biologic treatments for psoriasis may increase.

Efficacy and safety of ustekinumab treatment in elderly patients with psoriasis.

The ratio of the elderly among psoriasis patients has been increasing. However, satisfactory long-term management of psoriasis for the elderly is challenging because of the more frequent presence of comorbidities, and the higher risk of adverse events from systemic therapeutic agents than younger patients. The use of ustekinumab (UST) appears to be an appropriate systemic treatment because it is considered less likely to cause adverse events than other systemic treatments, as well as necessitating fewer hospital visits. Our retrospective study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety profile of UST in elderly patients with psoriasis. The study included 24 patients aged over 65 years (range, 65-88 years; mean, 73.1 years) with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis with impaired quality of life. Efficacy and safety were assessed over a 1-year period using the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) and the Dermatology Live Quality Index (DLQI). The efficacy was evaluated by the proportion of subjects who achieved ≥75% reduction in PASI score (PASI 75). PASI 75 responses were 56.5% at week 16, 59.1% at week 28, and 60.0% at week 52. None of the patients developed any serious infection during the 1-year treatment. The mean DLQI score at weeks 0, 16, 28, and 52 was 7.8 ± 6.0, 2.5 ± 3.4, 1.4 ± 1.7, and 1.2 ± 1.7, respectively. UST showed sufficient efficacy for elderly patients with psoriasis without any serious infection over the 1-year treatment. Our results suggest that UST is the preferable agent for the treatment of elderly patients with psoriasis.

Impact of obesity on the efficacy of ustekinumab in Japanese patients with psoriasis: a retrospective cohort study of 111 patients.

Obesity is thought to be involved in the pathogenesis of psoriasis, although its impact on the therapeutic response to systemic treatments remains unclear. The aim of this study was to examine the association of body mass index (BMI) with the efficacy of ustekinumab in Japanese patients with psoriasis. Clinical data from a cohort of 111 Japanese patients treated with ustekinumab 45 mg between July 2011 and March 2014 were retrospectively evaluated. The measured outcome was improvement in the psoriasis area and severity index (PASI) score at week 16. Patients with BMI ≥ 25 and BMI < 25 had comparable rates of ≥50 and 75 % improvement in PASI (PASI-50 and PASI-75, respectively), whereas patients with BMI ≥ 25 had significantly lower PASI-90 and PASI-100 response rates. Patients with BMI ≥ 25 also showed significantly lower percent reduction in PASI than those with BMI < 25 at week 16 (85 vs. 74 %, P < 0.004). BMI was negatively correlated with percent reduction in PASI, whereas body weight was not. These results show that a higher BMI, but not body weight, is associated with lower effectiveness of ustekinumab for psoriasis. BMI ≥ 25 could therefore be a negative predictor of achieving PASI-90 and PASI-100 in patients with psoriasis when starting ustekinumab.

Drug survival rates in patients with psoriasis after treatment with biologics.

Clinically, patients' adherence to biologic treatment is not only related to efficacy but also to adverse events, cost and other factors. To evaluate long-term viability of biologic treatment, both the percentage of and reasons for discontinuation of treatment were investigated. In this study, patients treated with infliximab (n = 38), adalimumab (n = 59) and ustekinumab (n = 30) were included and observed for 12 months. Clinical efficacy was evaluated using a 75% reduction of Psoriasis Area and Severity Index score (PASI-75), and patients who discontinued treatment were considered as not having achieved PASI-75. In addition, drug survival rate (DSR) was investigated. In patients treated with infliximab, PASI-75 was 68.4% and DSR was 73.3% by the end of treatment. In patients treated with adalimumab, PASI-75 was 50.8% and DSR was 79.7%. In patients treated with ustekinumab, PASI-75 was 63.3% and DSR was 96.7%. Several patients discontinued treatment because of insufficient efficacy due to secondary failure in infliximab or primary failure in adalimumab. To increase treatment efficacy, it will be necessary for these patients to use an additional concomitant treatment. Higher efficacy is expected with biologics than with conventional treatments; however, the actual clinical efficacy over a long period of time may be insufficient if they are used without any concomitant treatments.

Malignant neoplasm in the axilla of a male: suspected primary carcinoma of an accessory mammary gland.

A 58-year-old Japanese male patient visited our hospital for evaluation of an elastic hard mass, measuring 80 x 50 mm, in the right axillary area. Incisional biopsy for suspected malignancy was performed, and histopathologic examination by hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) staining yielded a diagnosis of poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma metastatic from an unknown primary. As the tumor was immunohistochemically positive for both ER and PgR, metastatic breast cancer was strongly suspected. Ultrasonography, CT, and MRI revealed no evidence of tumors in the bilateral mammary glands. Detailed examination of the head and neck region, lung, and upper and lower gastrointestinal tract also revealed no evidence of a primary tumor. After chemotherapy, the patient underwent tumor resection with axillary lymph node dissection. On the basis of the histological features of H&E-stained specimens and immunohistochemistry of the resected tumor, this case was diagnosed as breast cancer of unknown origin in a male. The tumor could have been an axillary lymph node metastasis from an occult breast carcinoma, or primary cancer arising in an accessory mammary gland.