Welcome to Dermbits! Watch short videos of KOLs answering your questions

thumbnail_dermbits-colorful.png

dermbits-colorful.png

Dermbits

How concerned are you about the risk of death mentioned in the boxed warning for ruxolitinib cream?

Atopic Dermatitis

You. So I am not at all concerned about the risk for death. This maybe goes back to the thrombosis question. I suppose if there's a minuscule chance that it increases your risk for thrombosis. Well, if you get thrombosis, turn into a PE. A heart attack, stroke, whatever. So I can't be like, this is impossible and it's ridiculous. But you know what? I've prescribed topical recolinitive to probably a dozen people since it came out a couple of weeks ago. And the way that I say this to them, look, it's going to come with these warnings that says it might cause blood clots, it might increase your risk for infections, it might even increase your risk for death. As long as you're not eating the cream, I don't think you need to worry about any of that. So I just want to warn you about that so that whenever you get it, you're not startled. Just don't eat the stuff. That's the way that I talk to patients about it. Do I think that there is the possibility that there's some minuscule risk? It's possible because there is systemic absorption. Again, if it's a risk, it is incredibly minimal. And you also do have to always take this in context of what are your other options? Your other options. So, topical steroids. We know topical steroids increase the risk of diabetes. They increase the risk of osteoporosis. We know there are lots of local effects or potential for HPA access suppression. So it's not like we're comparing ruxalitinib to nothing. If we compare it to high potency topical steroids, certainly even the risk of those kind of systemic side effects, I think is going to be, in my mind, is certainly lower. With ruxalitinib is what makes the most sense.

How concerned are you about the risk of death mentioned in the boxed warning for ruxolitinib cream?

Related CME