BSTOP

Biomarkers and Stratification To Optimise outcomes in Psoriasis (BSTOP) is a study which seeks to identify and characterise biomarkers of response to systemic and biologic treatments for psoriasis.

The Biomarkers and Stratification To Optimise outcomes in Psoriasis (BSTOP) study is a non-commercial, observational study established in 2011 by Chief Investigator Professor Catherine Smith of St John’s Institute of Dermatology at Guy's and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

The Psoriasis Association provided critical early funding to set up BSTOP, and since then the study team has collectively attracted nearly £10 million in further funding.

The aim of BSTOP is to identify markers that will enable doctors to give the right medicine to the right patient at the right time. Researchers are doing this by collecting blood and other biological samples as well as looking at how drugs are handled in the body, with over 7,000 people with psoriasis recruited so far and more than 29,000 samples collected. Once discovered, doctors will be able to use the genetic and biological blueprint of each patient to identify which treatments are most likely to work (and be the safest or least likely to cause side effects). At the same time, researchers are developing a sample and data resource that could be used by other researchers to study any aspect of psoriasis.

Through BSTOP, major steps forward have already been accomplished, as researchers have identified markers of response and also how to improve outcomes to biologic treatments by monitoring therapeutic drug levels, making personalised medicine a reality. Future plans include expanding the study to all types and severities of psoriasis and exploring the influence of environmental factors on the development and progression of psoriasis.