INTRODUCTION
Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a debilitating chronic inflammatory disease with a single approved treatment, TNF-antagonist adalimumab 40 mg/week (ADA40). However, only half of patients treated with ADA40 achieved Hidradenitis Suppurativa Clinical Response (HiSCR) in phase 3 trials.1 We suspect that the limited effectiveness of this drug may be affected by inadequate dosing. HS patients are 4-times more likely to be obese than the general population, however, unlike other TNF-inhibitors, adalimumab dosing is not weight-based.1,2 In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of adalimumab 80 mg/week (ADA80) in 8 overweight and obese HS patients with ADA40-refractory disease.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
In this dual-center retrospective cohort study, patients seen between August 2016 and December 2021 with an ICD-10 code for HS and treated with ADA40 were screened for dose escalation to ADA80. Patients were included if they had a Hurley or HS-Physician Global Assessment (HS-PGA) score indicating moderate or severe HS, had a BMI >25, and were treated with ADA80 for at least 3 months. Data were collected on demographics, comorbidities, treatments, adverse events, patient-reported symptoms, and HS severity (HS-PGA and HiSCR) at ADA40 and ADA80 (Table 1). We report descriptive statistics and comparisons using Wilcoxon signed-rank test. This study was approved by the University of California, San Francisco Institutional Review Board (IRB) and did not require approval from the Kaiser Permanente Northern California IRB.
RESULTS
Eight patients (6 female, 2 male) from diverse racial backgrounds (5 Black, 2 White, and one multiracial: White and Asian) were included in the study. At the time of dose escalation from ADA40 to ADA80, median age was 37.0 years (25.5-41.5), and median BMI was 36.6 (32.5-40.7). Median follow-up on ADA40 was 11.2 months (9.3-20.1), and 13.2 months (3.7-27.2) on ADA80.