A Breakthrough Comes For Vitiligo With The New Treatment

What You Need To Know About Vitiligo?

To return colour to skin that has been lightened by vitiligo, the skin disease that turned Michael Jackson’s skin white, doctors have discovered a combination of treatments. 

Including the oral medication Xeljanz (tofacitinib), which comes as a drug already approved for use in rheumatoid arthritis patients that dampens the body’s immune response, as well as ultraviolet B light therapy, is the new therapy. 

According to a study author, the results have been dramatic as the combination has only been used on two vitiligo patients.The findings need to be duplicated in studies with larger groups of people as experts add. 

As said by Dr. Brett King, an associate professor of dermatology at Yale University School of Medicine, producing results that are impossible to achieve with common therapies is the treatment. He further adds that it is a breakthrough in vitiligo treatment. 

ShahanajAkter, one of King’s vitiligo patients agrees to this. 

As she further states, her skin is much better helping her use makeup that blends nicely and she is so excited about it. 

While she was pregnant in her 20s, Akter now 34 first noticed a white patch of skin above her eyebrow on her normally brown skin. White patches showed up on her hands and neck as the patch grew bigger and bigger. 

The Stance Of The VRF

According to the Vitiligo Research Foundation (VRF), it is a condition causing white patches of skin to appear on various parts of the face and body. Further, the hair loses its pigment turning white caused by the disorder. It is more noticeable in people with darker skin and hair as the condition can affect people of any race. 

Believed to be an autoimmune condition where the immune system mistakenly attacks pigment-producing cells is generally vitiligo. 

According to VRF, the condition affects up to 2 percent of the world’s population. 

As it is not contagious, vitiligo according to King have people concerned when they see the people with vitiligo on their hands. So that they don’t have to touch their hands, he said patients have told him that cashiers sometimes ask them to put money or credit cards down on the counter. 

King states that affecting the way the world interacts with you is vitiligo. For some, it leads to clinical depression and anxiety as it can be frustrating and embarrassing. 

Vitiligo carries even more of a stigma where Akter was living in her native country of Bangladesh where her condition first began. Saying unkind things to her were some people as she said, she cried a lot and wanted her colour to be back again. 

Akter tried treatment after treatment in Bangladesh as well as in the United States, to that end. None brought the results she was hoping for whereas some therapies caused intolerable side effects. 

She said that it was terrible that she tried so many things. 

In this context, King suggested she try the new combination therapy. 
Akter had white patches on about three-quarters of her face at the time of treatment. Having patches on her neck, chest, forearms, hands, and shins, she was given 5 milligrams of tofacitinib twice daily with a full body UV-B light therapy twice weekly. 

Akter’s face was almost completely free of white patches after three months. Re-pigmented with colour was about 75 percent of her neck, chest, forearms, and shins. Minimal freckling appeared only on her hands. 

How Does This Treatment Work?

Explaining it this way Dr.Seemal Desai, a clinical assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, states that they go into hiding as the immune system is attacking the melanocytes. The UV light brings them out of hibernation as Tofacitinib tells them its OK to come out of hiding. 

Reporting on a white man in his 50s who had long-standing vitiligo was King and his colleagues. So that he would be uniformly white, he had previously received treatment to remove all pigment. On 90 percent of his face, he still had patches of whiter skin. On his torso and arms too he had patches. 

He had about 50 percent re-pigmentation after three months of treatment on his face. He had 75 percent re-pigmentation on his face after six months. As the man had previously undergone chemical destruction of the pigment cells, King was surprised at how effective the treatment was. 

The findings looked promising, as the new treatment options are great according to Desai. He further adds the study needs to be replicated in what is a larger group of people. 

The Conclusion 

People will surely have a hard time getting reimbursed for tofacitinib as it’s not approved for treating vitiligo as he noted right now. The drug is quite expensive even though he didn’t know the exact costs. The drug’s price tag was estimated at roughly $2,000 a month. 

The drug seems to be well tolerated according to both King and Desai. King suspects some would be on it long-term possibly for life whereas he doesn’t know how long people would need to take the drug. In a research letter in the journal JAMA Dermatology, details of the cases were published online.