In an article reported in Dermatologic Therapy, Greek researchers presented an analysis on the sub-population of patients with plaque psoriasis who were treated with fixed combination calcipotriol/betamethasone (Cal/BD) aerosol foam in the real-world CELSUS study. According to the study’s lead author, Dimitrios Rigopoulos, “reduction from baseline in psoriasis symptoms was observed in all patient groups,” and “the greatest reductions were observed in treatment-naïve patients with severe disease.”
In the CELSUS study, 400 patients were categorized based on prior treatment experience and Physician’s Global Assessment (PGA) score (mild [2], moderate [3], and severe [4]). Patients were administered Cal/BD aerosol foam for four weeks. The primary measure of the study was the proportion of patients who achieved treatment success, defined as a reduction to a PGA score of 0 or 1. Additional endpoints included Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI), patient-reported itch, itch-related sleep loss, scaling, dry skin, and erythema.
At the study’s baseline, 216 patients were naïve to systemic or topical psoriasis treatments and 184 were treatment experienced. Among the naïve patients, 135, 69, and 12 had mild, moderate, and severe disease, respectively, and 89, 83, and 12 treatment-experienced patients had the same respective ratings. Treatment success was achieved by 72.6% of mild, 56.5% of moderate, and 55.7% of severe disease patients in the naïve group, while 60.7% of mild, 42.2% of moderate, and 25% of severe patients in the treatment-experienced group succeeded.
In closing, the authors summarized that, “clinically relevant benefits were observed with Cal/BD aerosol foam in psoriasis patients, regardless of prior treatment-experience and disease severity at baseline.”
Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dth.15484
