Comment by Dominique Cleopatra on June 23, 2014 at 4:07am

Possible side-effects include cancer and other serious conditions such as infections that could be fatal. I was excited at first, but I don't think I'm willing to risk my health to regrow my hair. I hear they are developing a topical cream which would have much less risk, but the same ability to regrow hair. Perhaps, that will be an option someday. What do you all think, is taking this drug worth it to have a full-head of hair again?

Comment by Tallgirl on June 23, 2014 at 11:42pm

   Please see important message below from the National Alopecia Areata Foundation (naaf.org) regarding an immunosuppressant medication that regrew one man's hair who had alopecia as well as the Yale research article on the drug. (Columbia is one of the main research universities for alopecia which is why it is mentioned below.) Laura Ralph is the support and education director of NAAF and Dory Kranz is president and CEO of NAAF.

**********************************************************************************************

Hi Everyone,

 

Many of you may have heard the news about an arthritis medication regrowing hair on a man with psoriasis and alopecia areata universalis. This is very encouraging. Please read Dory’s message to our board of directors (below) as well as our official NAAF statement.

 

Laura Ralph
National Alopecia Areata Foundation
14 Mitchell Boulevard
San Rafael, CA 94903-2050
Phone:415-472-3780
Fax:415-472-5343
www.naaf.org

From: Dory Kranz
Sent: Friday, June 20, 2014 7:58 AM

A news article came out yesterday regarding an individual with alopecia areata universalis regrowing hair during an 8 month course of treatment with an oral immunosuppressant - tofacitinib citrate.  Gary and Abby hopped right on this and conferred with our advisors at Columbia University on a response (see below).  The scientific article which will be published in the JID is attached and here is a link to a CBS Boston news article from yesterday.

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2014/06/19/hairless-man-grows-full-head-...

Just for your information, one of the reasons for caution in our exuberance is that tofacitinib is an immunosuppressant, not an immunomodulator, and in the current oral form may have side effects for long term use and we don’t know if the hair regrowth is durable without continued drug use.   Columbia University is seeing promising results with another JAK inhibitor -- ruxolitinib -- in a 10 person study and is expanding to include 2 people with AU.  Based on these promising results, Columbia will start a similar small trial with tofacitinib this summer.  They already have a waiting list for enrollees from the ruxolitinib trial.  

NAAF Response:

The National Alopecia Areata Foundation (NAAF) is encouraged by the results of an 8-month course of treatment conducted by researchers at Yale University School of Medicine in which a 25-year-old male patient with alopecia areata universalis was able to regrow a full head of hair, along with eyebrows, eyelashes, and facial, armpit, and other hair when put on a regimen of tofacitinib citrate, an FDA-approved treatment for arthritis.  The drug has also been successfully used in the treatment of psoriasis.

While we remain hopeful, we wish to remind the alopecia areata community this is a preliminary study with the effects of the drug studied on only one individual.  It should be considered preliminary and not validated at this point, and remains to be further studied in clinical trials.  We encourage the researchers at Yale to pursue a clinical trial and are excited that a clinical trial with this drug will be starting at Columbia University this summer.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.  See (most of) you in San Antonio soon.

Dory

Dory Kranz

President & Chief Executive Officer

National Alopecia Areata Foundation

14 Mitchell Boulevard, San Rafael, CA  94903       415-472-3780

 

Check out our Alopecia Areata Treatment Development Program Video

 

Upcoming Out of Office Schedule

      June 24-30 San Antonio, TX -- NAAF Annual Patient and Family Conference

      September 9-11 Washington DC -- NAAF Legislative Liaison meetings on Capitol Hill

 

 

 

 

Comment