Early identification of atopic dermatitis patients in need of systemic immunosuppressive treatment.

Combining these eight biomarkers in a biomarker signature increased the capacity to predict treatment responses in severe AD patients. Our results imply that pathophysiological heterogeneity in immunological pathways might underlie differences in treatment responses, and may be used to distinguish a specific subpopulation of difficult-to-treat AD patients in need of systemic treatment from patients who can be controlled with topical therapy. This signature might serve as a valuable addition to the decision whether to start systemic therapy or not in individual AD patients, and the statistical algorithm used in this study may also be applied to construct biomarker signatures predicting treatment response to systemic immunosuppressive drugs, dupilumab or other therapies in the future. Since more targeted therapies will play an increasingly important role in AD treatment, prediction of treatment response can significantly contribute to selecting the right treatment for the right patient. [Extracted from the article]