Dimethyl Fumarate as Therapeutic Alternative in Moderate-to-Severe Psoriasis: Our Experience.

Purpose: Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) is an oral formulation approved for the treatment of moderate-to-severe psoriasis in adult patients requiring systemic therapy. Here, we describe our clinical experience with DMF for moderate-to-severe psoriasis in Spain.

Patients and methods: This is a retrospective study including 30 adult patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis under treatment with DMF between September 2018 and January 2020. Patients were treated with DMF as per its Summary of Product Characteristics and the median duration of treatment was 15 weeks (4-55 weeks). Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) and body surface area (BSA) severity scales were evaluated from baseline to week 36 and adverse events (AEs) developed during treatment were described.

Results: The efficacy of DMF was assessed at week 8 and at week 36 (n = 5), both PASI and BSA were 0. At week 24, median PASI showed a decrease in both the last observation carried forward (LOCF; n = 23) and the observed cases (OC) (n = 10): from 10 to 6 and from 10 to 1.5, respectively. Median BSA also showed a decrease from 19 to 10 in LOCF and from 17 to 3 in OC. The most frequent AEs were diarrhoea (40.0%), flushing (13.3%) and lymphopenia (3.3%). In 47.1% patients, AEs have been solved by adjusting the DMF dose. Treatment discontinuation rate due to AEs was 43.3%.

Conclusion: Our clinical experience indicates that DMF could be an effective and safe treatment for moderate-to-severe psoriasis in adult patients.