Abstract
Purpose: Evaluate the efficacy of a new combination topical foam formulation (active vitamin D3 analogues: calcipotriol [Cal] plus corticosteroid: betamethasone dipropionate [BDP]) in real clinical practice.
Method: Patients who started using the Cal/BDP foam formulation for the first time to treat psoriasis vulgaris between June 1, 2021, and June 30, 2023, and had complete clinical assessments (PASI, IGA, and BSA scores) before and after treatment (at Weeks 0 and 4) were selected from a real-world medical information database that mainly targets general practitioners throughout Japan. Endpoints were analyzed after 4 weeks compared to baseline.
Results: The Cal/BDP foam formulation showed statistically significant improvement for all endpoints at Week 4, regardless of whether the patient was new to psoriasis vulgaris treatment and irrespective of the topical agent used before switching or the disease severity from mild to severe. The Cal/BDP foam formulation showed statistically significant improvement in “itching”, which reduces the QoL of patients with psoriasis vulgaris. The present data on the Cal/BDP foam formulation in real clinical practice showed a strong correlation between the IGA × BSA score and PASI score, suggesting that they are useful indicators that can easily assess psoriasis vulgaris disease activity in daily medical practice.
Conclusion: The Cal/BDP foam formulation is expected to improve patient adherence because it is applied once a day and is easily applied to extensive lesions. It has also been reported that high efficacy can be obtained rapidly because skin penetration of the ingredients is high. In this study on topical treatment of psoriasis vulgaris in Japanese real clinical practice, the Cal/BDP foam formulation showed statistically significant improvement of skin symptoms regardless of the severity or whether treatment-naïve or switching treatment. It is important to share such evidence with patients and choose appropriate treatment options in daily medical practice.
