Some hope for vitiligo

Skin depigmentation causes great anxiety in children and their families. Vitiligo is an autoimmune condition and very hard to treat. Lucina usually ends up referring for cosmetic make up advice. The adult literature is making some progress and suggests there may be hope for the future. Rosmarin D et al (N Engl J Med 2022;387:1445–1455. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2118828) have recruited to two, double blind, phase 3, controlled trials of ruxolitinib which is a Janus kinase 1 and 2 inhibitor in the form of a topical application. The Topical Ruxolitinib Evaluation in Vitiligo Study 1 (TRuE-V1) and 2 (TRuE-V2) studies enrolled patients from Europe and USA. In 674 subjects of 12 years or older with vitiligo involving less than or equal to 10% skin coverage. Subjects were randomly allocated to apply 1.5% ruxolitinib cream or placebo for 6 months applied two times a day. All subjects then went on to use active treatment through to the end of the year. There were 330 individuals in TRuE-V1 and 344 in TRuE-V2. In TRuE-V1. They used the validated standard Vitiligo Area Scoring Index (F-VASI) and the Vitiligo Noticeability Scale (VNS) as outcome measures. At 6 months, the TRuE-1 active treatment group had …