Risankizumab Shows High Efficacy and Maintainance in Improvement of Response Until Week 52

Introduction: Risankizumab has been recently approved for moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis; however real-life studies are scarce. Analysis of possible predictor factors of treatment response are limited to body mass index (BMI) and previous biologic experience. Our objectives were to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of Risankizumab and to investigate on possible predictor factors response. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 166 patients from 2 centers in Italy who undergone Risankizumab for psoriasis. The proportion of patients achieving a 100%, 90%, 75% of improvement in Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI) and PASI<3 were collected at weeks 16, 28, 40 e 52. Study population was anlayzed in subgroups to investigate possible predictors of response to Risankizumab since week 40. Results: At the time of analysis 165, 103, 30 and 11 patients had completed 16, 28, 40, and 52 weeks of treatment, respectively. The mean PASI score decreased from 12.5±5.1 at baseline to 1.9±2.4 at week 16. Similar reductions were observed when considering PASI<3, PASI75, PASI90, and PASI100. Previous biologics failure, different smoking habits, obesity, and joint involvement resulted in a lower response to risankizumab. In particular, significant differences in mean PASI at any time-points was observed between psoriatic arthritis (PSA) and non-PSA patients: 2.7 vs 1.7 (p=0.036), 1.9 vs 0.4 (p=0.006), and 4.1 vs 0.5 (p=0.016) at 16, 28, 40 weeks respectively. No difference in response to risankizumab occurred in the case of involvement of difficult-to-treat areas. Conclusions: In this population Risankizumab was effective and safe. Smoking habits, joint involvement, obese status, and previous biologic experience may negatively affect treatment response, while difficult body sites involvement have minor impact. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.