At the Dawn of a Therapeutic Revolution for Atopic Dermatitis: An Interview with Dr Anne-Claire Fougerousse

Dr Anne-Claire Fougerousse is Head of Dermatology at the Bégin Hospital in Saint-Mandé, France, and scientific coordinator of a French network of dermatologists and allergists (ResoEczema). The focus of her work is to improve the care of adolescent and adult patients with atopic dermatitis (AD), a chronic, pruritic inflammatory skin disease that substantially impacts patient quality of life. In this interview, Dr Fougerousse provides an overview of the clinical presentation of adult patients with AD and describes available treatments. Today, topical agents like emollients and corticosteroids are the mainstay of AD therapy, and patients with lesions that are resistant to optimally administered topical treatment can also receive phototherapy or systemic therapy with ciclosporin. Dr Fougerousse discusses her hopes for the future of AD therapy with the recent development of biologicals like dupilumab, which may provide improvements in clinical outcomes and quality of life for patients with moderate-to-severe AD. In the next few years, the therapeutic arsenal for AD will likely expand to include more systemic therapies providing sustained symptom control. The real challenge will be to ensure that the maximum number of patients with AD achieve clinical benefits from these new treatments.