November’s Masterclasses in Psoriatic Disease Plus for Advanced Practice Providers+ in Dallas is coming up fast—and so are advances in understanding of treatments for inflammatory and autoimmune diseases via immune system regulation. We are talking, of course, about JAK (Janus kinase) inhibitors, which have been making headlines as studies reveal ever more about the workings of these medications that block overactive immune responses.
In August 2023, the National Cancer Institute reported on two clinical trials involving JAK inhibitors, both of which added the drugs to immune checkpoint inhibitors and resulted in tumor shrinkage in more than half of the studies’ participants. One study focused on with patients with lung cancer and another on patients with lymphoma.
How did this work? The studies indicated that JAK inhibitors actually “reinvigorate burnt-out T cells,” which brings a second wind of sorts into the cancer-fighting processes kicked off by immune checkpoint inhibitors.
Closer to the world of dermatology, a September 2024 article in Nature indicated that updates to how specific JAKs are selected could improve safety profiles of the drugs. Key points in the report focused on how selective targeting could reduce adverse effects—a problem that sometimes inhibits their use. To this point, The Lancet published “JAK Inhibitors—Friend or Foe?” early in 2024, mentioning mounting safety concerns and questioning whether the benefits of the immune system regulators outweighed the risks. Indeed, since tofacitinib was first approved by the FDA for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in 2012, safety warnings and professional recommendations followed, most recently in 2021 and 2022, preceding a drop in JAK inhibitor prescriptions.
In the midst of this, The Lancet reports: “Emerging real-world data on JAK inhibitor safety has been mostly reassuring.” The article’s final summary? Like all of the best medical treatments, benefit and risk come down to personalized care.
This ethos is echoed in the Masterclasses in Dermatology founding principles, which seek to bring dermatologists together with physicians and providers from all disciplines with a goal of improving the lives of patients via networking on interpersonal communication. November’s meeting will include sessions on atopic dermatitis, overviews of psoriatic arthritis, high-level views of the approach to psoriatic disease treatment, and more. Bring your questions, thoughts, and stories about JAK inhibitors—as well as inflammatory and autoimmune diseases in general—to the conference for discussion.
It’s not too late to sign up to join us in Dallas for November’s meeting! Click here to register. For more information, please explore the rest of the Masterclasses in Dermatology site.
