Secukinumab improves enthesitis in patients with ankylosing spondylitis

In patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS), treatment with secukinumab leads to improvement in enthesitis at overall Maastricht AS Enthesitis Score (MASES) and axial sites, results of a recent study have shown.

Using pooled data from randomized controlled phase III studies, the investigators assessed the efficacy of secukinumab on axial and peripheral enthesitis in AS patients. They pooled data from patients originally randomized to secukinumab 150 mg, 300 mg, or placebo from phase III MEASURE 1–4 studies (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01358175, NCT01649375, NCT02008916, and NCT02159053).

MASES was used to assess enthesitis through week 52. Efficacy outcomes were mean change in MASES score and complete resolution (MASES=0) of enthesitis in patients with baseline MASES >0.

In this post hoc analysis, a total of 693 (71.5 percent) out of 969 patients presented with enthesitis at baseline in secukinumab 300-mg (n=58, 76.3 percent), 150-mg (n=355, 70.4 percent), and placebo groups (n=280, 72 percent).

Mean changes at week 16 from baseline for overall MASES and enthesitis at axial MASES sites, respectively, were as follows: –2.9 (p<0.01) and –2.9 (p<0.01) for secukinumab 300 mg; –2.4 (p<0.015) and –2.3 (p<0.05) for secukinumab 150 mg; and –1.9 and –1.8 for placebo. Of note, these improvements persisted through week 52.

In addition, more than a third of patients treated with secukinumab (300 mg: 36.2 percent; 150 mg: 40.8 percent) achieved complete resolution of enthesitis at week 16.