Lluís Puig, Mark Lomaga, Kristin Hollister, Yves Dutronc, Lovisa Berggren, Peter C.M. van de Kerkhof
DOI: 10.2340/00015555-3700

Patient-reported outcomes are valuable for assessing new psoriasis therapies. This study investigated patient-reported outcomes in patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis treated with ixekizumab or ustekinumab, dosed according to their respective labels, for 52 weeks (IXORA-S-NCT02561806). Patient-reported outcomes investigated included patient global assessment, pruritus, skin pain, health-related quality of life, and work productivity. Ixekizumab-treated patients reported greater improvements in patient-reported outcomes sooner after treatment compared with ustekinumab-treated patients, and maintained greater improvements in patient global assessment scores (ixekizumab 0.72, ustekinumab 1.19; p < 0.001), rates of Dermatology Life Quality Index (0, 1) (ixekizumab 71.3%, ustekinumab 56.6%, p < 0.01), and 36-item Short-form Health survey physical component summary score change from baseline (ixekizumab 5.53, ustekinumab 3.28; p < 0.05) at week 52. While clinically meaningful improvements in patient-reported outcomes resulted with either treatment, ixekizumab provided more rapid improvements in patient-reported outcomes and superior outcomes for some assessments through one year of treatment, while maintaining statistically superior improvements in skin severity, as assessed by either physicians or patients.

While skin clearance is the goal of psoriasis treatment, patients and practitioners also state the need for improvements in patients’ quality of life. These improvements are evaluated by various patient-reported outcomes. The results of this study showed that ixekizumab-treated patients had significantly greater improvements in patient-reported outcomes compared with ustekinumab-treated patients across multiple assessments at or before week 12, with the responses being maintained to week 52. As most patients in the IXORA-S trial achieved high levels of skin clearance, the trial results presented here reflect the important improvements in everyday quality of life that come with skin clearance.

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