Guselkumab Provides Long-Term Relief in Psoriatic Arthritis

TOPLINE:

Guselkumab administered every 8 weeks (Q8W) leads to durable improvement in disease activity along with improvements in both skin and joint symptoms over 2 years in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) who were previously naive to biologic treatment.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers conducted a post hoc analysis of the phase 3 DISCOVER-2 trial to evaluate the extent of disease control at consecutive guselkumab dosing visits, as well as the long-term persistence of clinically relevant improvements.
• The study included 248 patients (mean age, 44.9 years; 48% women) with active PsA who were previously naive to biologic treatment and had been randomly assigned to receive 100 mg of guselkumab at weeks 0 and 4, with subsequent doses every 8 weeks.
• Most patients (90%) received guselkumab Q8W through week 100.

TAKEAWAY:

• Among the patients receiving guselkumab Q8W, 93%-99% maintained minimal clinically important improvements in joint symptoms on the Disease Activity Index in PsA (DAPSA) at consecutive dosing visits through week 52.
• The majority (68%-89%) of the patients who achieved minimal clinically important improvements in joint or skin symptoms and disease activity by week 24 sustained these improvements at week 100.
• The estimated mean durations of maintaining clinically important improvements were 76.7 weeks for overall disease activity (assessed by PsA Disease Activity Score), 58.6 weeks for joint activity (assessed by DAPSA score), and 75.7 weeks for skin disease (assessed by Investigator’s Global Assessment score).
• The median times to loss of improvement were not reached by the participants.

IN PRACTICE:

“Guselkumab Q8W provided highly durable joint efficacy at consecutive Q8W dosing visits through 1 year and conferred persistent benefits across PsA domains through 2 years, consistent with previously reported continuous improvement in group-level clinical response rates over time. These study findings may further inform physicians and patients when initiating and monitoring treatment plans,” the authors wrote 

SOURCE:

The study was led by Philip J. Mease, MD, Providence Swedish Medical Center and University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, and was published online on October 4, 2024, in ACR Open Rheumatology.

LIMITATIONS:

The study was conducted in a clinical trial population of patients who were naive to biologics, which may limit the generalizability of the findings to a broader population. Moreover, the analysis of clinical improvement was limited to efficacy assessments conducted at consecutive 8-week dosing visits, restricting the evaluation of efficacy during the time between these visits. The study did not include all outcomes owing to longer data collection intervals beyond week 52, restricting the analysis to 1 year of treatment.

DISCLOSURES:

The study was supported by Janssen Research & Development. Three authors held stock options with the funding sources; other authors reported having several ties with many pharmaceutical companies and other sources.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.