JAK inhibitors for Alopecia areata: A closer look at the studies to date

JAK inhibitors for AA

This week we will take a look at using topical and oral JAK inhibitors for treating alopecia areata. This includes the drugs tofacitinib (Xeljanz) and ruxolitinib (Jakavi, Jakafi).

A closer look at the Oral JAK Inhibitors

Today, we will start with the oral JAK inhibitors. To date, there have been six reasonably sized studies looking at the benefits of the oral JAK inhibitors. These are summarized in the table. Most of the studies have been done with tofacitinib- the one exception is the study of 12 patients using ruxolitinib by Mackay-Wiggan and colleagues. Two of the 6 studies have been in patients under 18 years - namely the 2017 studies by Craiglow and colleagues Castelo-Soccio and colleagues.
 

Conclusion

The message of all the studies has been the same: use of oral JAK inhibitors in patients with advanced alopecia areata helps, approximately one half achieve cosmetically significant regrowth.