Source: DGNews  |  Posted 3 years ago

By Jenny Powers

PARIS -- September 20, 2008 -- Adalimumab is well tolerated and effective in the treatment of moderate to severe psoriasis, regardless of the patient's age, duration of illness, and recent treatment history, according to results presented here at the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV).

The year-long Randomized Controlled Evaluation of Adalimumab Every Other Week in Moderate to Severe Psoriasis Trial (REVEAL) was a double-blind, placebo-controlled evaluation of 1,212 patients at 81 centres in Canada and the United States.

Lead author Alan Menter, MD, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, discussed the study findings in a poster presentation on September 18.

Patients in REVEAL were randomised 1:1 to receive either placebo or adalimumab 80 mg at week 0, followed by 40 mg every other week from weeks 1 through 15. Patients had moderate to severe psoriasis, were naive to treatment with antitumour necrosis factor (TNF), and had failed topical therapy.

A primary analysis was performed at week 16 using the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI), which describes a decrease of 50% or greater (PASI 50), 75% or greater (PASI 75), and 90% or greater (PASI 90) to evaluate patients' change from baseline in psoriasis involvement.

More than 70% of patients treated with adalimumab achieved PASI 75 versus 6.5% of the placebo patients (P < .001), the investigators noted.

Adalimumab response was similar across age groups, with 74%, 70%, and 61% of patients achieving PASI 75% in the 40-year-old, 40- to 64-year-old and >65-year-old groups, respectively.

The duration of psoriasis did not alter the response to adalimumab, which remained consistent across disease-duration quartiles that ranged from <10 years to more than 65 years. Also, 78% and 68% of patients with a recent history of systemic biological and nonbiological treatment achieved PASI 75%, respectively.

Treatment with adalimumab was well tolerated, with 96.2% of adalimumab-treated patients completing the initial phase versus 89.2% of the placebo group.

Funding for this study was provided by Abbott Laboratories.

[Presentation title: Adalimumab response is consistency across subgroups of patients with moderate to severe psoriasis: Results of REVEAL. Abstract FP1374]