Costanzo (Humanitas): “Psoriasis under control if treated within the first 2 years”

“We are able to diagnose psoriasis and intervene as soon as the first plaque appears. However, the problem is that patients with this relapsing and chronic disease begin to be treated 12 years after the first symptoms. The consequence is that the disease becomes chronic. The data show that if we treat the disease within the first two years we have a very high probability of controlling it, after that it drops a lot”. This was stated by Antonio Costanzo, director of the Dermatology Unit at the IRCCS Istituto Clinico Humanitas Rozzano in Milan, speaking at the press conference in Rome on the approval of reimbursement for the drug deucravacitinib. “Treating early also helps prevent comorbidities such as arthritis and cardiovascular complications, because psoriasis – underlines Costanza – is a risk factor for heart attack independent of cholesterol, smoking or obesity”. Furthermore “it can be associated with other pathologies such as arthritis and metabolic syndrome – he explains to Adnkronos Salute – which in turn impact the quality of life of patients”.

In Italy, “psoriasis affects about 3% of the population, so it is a rather frequent disease,” the expert points out. “We finally have a new treatment, deucravacitinib, a small molecule that can be taken orally once a day and that interferes with the mechanisms that lead to the development of plaques. How? It binds to a protein that is inside the cells and that has the task of signaling inflammation. So by blocking this protein, it blocks the inflammation signal in the skin of our patients. In this way, over the course of weeks, the patient sees their skin improve and, at the same time, their quality of life. Itching and visible patches disappear.”

This molecule “approved and also reimbursed in Italy through the National Health Service has been tested in clinical trials against another molecule that has worked less. Deucravacitinib induces the healing of psoriatic plaques in more than 60% of our patients. Therefore it is proposed for those patients who have a moderate-severe disease to failure, to the contraindication of conventional therapies such as cyclosporine and methotrexate and on a large portion of patients affected by this disease”. So far “the data we have tell us that as long as you take deucravacitinib, psoriasis remains under control. Once the therapy is suspended, psoriasis can return because it is a chronic disease on a genetic basis, but it returns very slowly. So there is always time to restart the therapy. The indication at the moment is to take it for life” he concludes.