Disease State: Alopecia Areata
Background
Alopecia areata is a condition characterized by hair loss resulting from a confused immune system attacking hair follicles. The hair loss most commonly occurs in patches on the scalp, but can also lead to complete loss of hair on the scalp or the entire body. Sometimes it is transient, with hair regrowth after a few months. Sometimes it is relapsing, with bouts of hair loss and regrowth. Sometimes it is chronic, with persistent hair loss. There is no cure for alopecia areata but there are treatments available including creams, injections and pills, with more treatments being developed.
Project Goal
AAROW (Alopecia Areata coRe Outcomes Working Group) aims to establish a core outcome set so that all trials investigating treatments for alopecia areata use and report the same outcome measures. This will allow patients, clinicians and researchers to better understand how effective different treatments are, and to compare different treatment options. Our group, which includes patients, clinicians and partners from the pharmaceutical industry, will establish what is important to measure when studying treatments for alopecia areata. We will evaluate existing outcome measures for alopecia areata, and if needed support the development of new measures. The end product will be a complete core outcome set to be measured in all clinical trials for alopecia areata.
Project Leads
Arash Mostaghimi
Aaron Drucker
Key Project Team Members
Cathryn Sibbald
Zahi Touma
C3 Methods Partner
Amit Garg
Contact
Arash Mostaghimi
Aaron Drucker (aaron.drucker@wchospital.ca)
Publications:
Xia E, Li SJ, Drake L, Reyes-Hadsall S, Mita C, Drucker AM, Mostaghimi A. An Assessment of Current Clinician-Reported and Patient-Reported Outcome Measures for Alopecia Areata: A Scoping Review. J Invest Dermatol. 2023. Online ahead of print. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37115113/
Updated July 25, 2023