Ruxolitinib cream provides relief for atopic dermatitis

Ruxolitinib (RUX) creams appear to ease itch severity and improve quality of life (QoL) among patients with atopic dermatitis (AD), a new study has found.

Researchers randomly assigned 307 (median age, 35.0 years; 54.7 percent female) adult AD patients to receive 8 weeks of RUX, triamcinolone or vehicle creams. RUX was given in four doses: 1.5% twice-daily (BID), and 1.5%, 0.5%, 0.15% all once-daily (QD). Both passive and active controls were given BID. Itch, the primary study outcome, was measured using the numerical rating scale (NRS), while QoL was assessed using Skindex-16.

RUX cream 1.5% BID significantly reduced NRS itch scores within 36 hours relative to the vehicle comparator (–1.8 vs 0.2; p<0.0001).

Moreover, all RUX cream treatments led to reductions in itch NRS scores within the first 2 weeks of treatment, with effects persisting for the rest of the trial period. After 4 weeks of treatment, both BID (–64.6) and QD (–54.0) regimens of the 1.5% RUX cream yielded better itch relief than triamcinolone (–50.3). However, only the BID RUX regimen was statistically superior (p=0.003).

These symptomatic improvements coincided with better QoL. All RUX cream arms showed significant improvements relative to baseline. This was particularly true in the 1.5% BID regimen, where Skindex-16 scores improved by a mean of 63.5 percent and 73.2 percent at weeks 2 and 8, respectively. In comparison, vehicle participants only saw QoL improvements of 10.5-percent and 19.7-percent at these corresponding timepoints.