Patterns of Combination Therapy with Alefacept for the Treatment of Psoriasis in Canada in the AWARE Study

Abstract

Background: Evidence from clinical trials supports the use of alefacept for the treatment of patients with chronic plaque psoriasis, either as monotherapy or combined with other treatment modalities. Objective: AWARE (Amevive Wisdom Acquired from Real-World Evidence) is a multicenter, observational, phase IV Canadian registry of psoriasis patients treated with alefacept. Methods: Patients with chronic plaque psoriasis were treated with at least one course of alefacept treatment followed by a period of at least 12 weeks off-treatment. The use of combination therapy with alefacept in a real-world population of psoriasis patients is presented here, including the types of psoriasis therapies received by patients at the time of enrolment, reasons for initiating alefacept, and discontinuation or dosage reduction of concomitant therapy. Results: The majority of patients were receiving other antipsoriatic therapies at the time of enrolment into the AWARE study, most commonly topical therapy, systemic agents, or phototherapy. Most patients were receiving monotherapy prior to the initiation of alefacept. There was little change in the use of topical therapies with alefacept at 24 weeks, whereas a substantial proportion of patients were able to reduce or discontinue concomitant systemic therapies and/or phototherapy. The use of combination therapy regimens was relatively consistent across the country and by age groups, although younger patients were prescribed systemic agents more often than older patients. Conclusion: Alefacept is commonly added to other antipsoriatic therapies in a broad population of real-world chronic plaque psoriasis patients in Canada and may allow for dosage reduction or discontinuation of concomitant systemic agents or phototherapy.