Nicholas Gulati, MD, PhD Director, Early Detection of Skin Cancer and Oncodermatology Clinic The Kimberly and Eric J. Waldman Department of Dermatology Mount Sinai Health System New York, New York

Eczema: Mount Sinai Study Finds No Increase Risk of Cancer in 5 Year Study of Dupilumab

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Nicholas Gulati, MD, PhDDirector, Early Detection of Skin Cancer and Oncodermatology Clinic
The Kimberly and Eric J. Waldman
Department of Dermatology
Mount Sinai Health System
New York, New York

Dr. Gulati

Nicholas Gulati, MD, PhD
Director, Early Detection of Skin Cancer and Oncodermatology Clinic
The Kimberly and Eric J. Waldman
Department of Dermatology
Mount Sinai Health System
New York, New York

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What is dupilumab primarily used for?

Response: Dupilumab is a monoclonal antibody that inhibits a specific part of the immune system known as Th2 cells, which are important in the development of various diseases including atopic dermatitis (eczema) and asthma. Therefore, dupilumab has become one of the major treatments for these conditions. Given the increasing use of this drug, it is important to understand the safety of it in terms of cancer development, as that is currently largely unknown.

MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings?

Response:  When looking at five years of data on eczema patients either treated with dupilumab or not, we found that patients treated with dupilumab are not at increased risk of cancer development. Also, in patients with a previous history of cancer, dupilumab use did not lead to an increased rate of cancer recurrences.

MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?

Response: Both patients and clinicians can be reassured that dupilumab, when used to treat eczema, is safe in terms of short-term cancer development. 

MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a results of this study?

Response: This study is limited by only looking at a five-year period, as that is how long dupilumab has been FDA-approved for eczema. Future studies looking at longer follow-up times are needed to confirm the findings. Also, we only examined eczema patients at a single institution, so larger-scale studies on varied patient populations will be useful.

No disclosures.

Citation:

Owji S, Ungar B, Dubin DP, Poplausky D, Young JN, Ghalili S, Han J, Srinivasan D, Packer S, Pavel AB, Correa da Rosa J, Guttman-Yassky E, Gulati N. No association between dupilumab use and short-term cancer development in atopic dermatitis patients. J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract. 2022 Dec 26:S2213-2198(22)01331-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jaip.2022.12.018. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36581076.

https://www.jaci-inpractice.org/article/S2213-2198(22)01331-9/fulltext

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Last Updated on March 9, 2023 by Marie Benz