Patient-reported outcomes in topical field treatment of actinic keratosis in Swedish and Danish patients

Abstract

Topical treatments in dermatology can be long, complex and lead to nonadherence and nonpersistence to prescribed treatment. Clinical efficacy observed in randomized clinical trials (RCT) may therefore be reduced in real-world clinical practice. The objective of this study was to analyze patient-reported treatment adherence, treatment satisfaction and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) with topical treatments of actinic keratosis (AK) in routine clinical practice in Denmark and Sweden. Adult patients prescribed field-directed topical AK treatments with diclofenac gel, imiquimod or ingenol mebutate per routine clinical practice were eligible for the observational RAPID-ACT study. Data were collected through physician and patient questionnaires that included validated instruments to measure treatment satisfaction (TSQM-9), treatment adherence (MMAS) and HRQoL (EQ-5D-5L, EQ-VAS, AKQoL). In total, 446 patients from Denmark and Sweden were included. Ingenol mebutate patients reported a higher satisfaction with treatment effectiveness compared to patients treated with diclofenac (p = .006) while no other differences in treatment satisfaction could be determined. Treatment adherence was generally high, but higher for ingenol mebutate compared to both diclofenac (p < .001) and imiquimod (p = .007), possibly due to shorter treatment duration. No differences in improved HRQoL were found. More research is needed about the link between treatment adherence and real-world effectiveness.