AAD: Long-term improvement seen with ruxolitinib in vitiligo

For patients with nonsegmental vitiligo, continued improvement in seen during a long-term extension of ruxolitinib treatment, according to study presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology, held from March 17 to 21 in New Orleans.

Noting that ruxolitinib cream demonstrated facial and total body repigmentation over 52 weeks in two phase 3 vitiligo studies (TRuE-V1/TRuE-V2), David Rosmarin, M.D., from the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, and colleagues examined shifts in facial/total Vitiligo Area Scoring Index (F-VASI/T-VASI) responses over an additional 52 weeks of open-label ruxolitinib treatment among patients aged ≥12 years who did not achieve ≥90 percent improvement in F-VASI (F-VASI90) at week 52.

The researchers found that 66.1 percent of the 222 patients initially randomly assigned to ruxolitinib achieved F-VASI75 at week 104, up from 30.8 percent at week 52 and 54.6 percent at week 80; a corresponding increase in T-VASI50 was seen, from 42.5 and 57.7 to 63.8 percent. At week 104, 30.9 percent attained F-VASI90. At week 80, 36.2 and 47.1 percent, respectively, remained stable and had improvement in F-VASI responses attained at week 52; 51.1 and 31.7 percent, respectively, remained stable and had improvement in T-VASI responses attained at week 52. Compared with results attained at week 80, at week 104, 64.4 and 19.6 percent, respectively, remained stable and had improvement in F-VASI responses, while 61.3 and 22.2 percent, respectively, remained stable and had improvement in T-VASI responses.

"Vitiligo is a chronic condition and these results demonstrate the long-term potential of this medical treatment for people with vitiligo who are interested in repigmentation," Rosmarin said in a statement.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to pharmaceutical companies, including Incyte, which manufactures ruxolitinib and sponsored the study.

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