Acitretin or Tazarotene Gel and Excimer Laser for Treatment of Psoriasis

June 6, 2019 updated by: Kristina Callis, University of Utah

A Comparison of Treatment of Psoriasis With Acitretin or Tazarotene Gel 0.1% and Active or Sham Treatments With the 308 nm Excimer Laser

This is a randomized, double-blind study of excimer (308-nm UVB) laser added to either tazarotene 0.1% gel or acitretin 25 mg daily for plaque psoriasis.

The primary objective of this study is to compare the improvement of psoriatic plaques with and without excimer laser (308-nm UVB) treatment, applied in a randomized and blinded fashion, in subjects on acitretin 25 mg or tazarotene gel 0.1% QD.

Study Overview

Detailed Description

The hypothesis of this study is that excimer (308-nm UVB) laser added to either tazarotene 0.1% gel or acitretin 25 mg daily will lead to improved efficacy of these treatments alone.

The primary objective of this study is to compare the improvement of psoriatic plaques with and without excimer laser (308-nm UVB) treatment, applied in a randomized and blinded fashion, in subjects on acitretin 25 mg or tazarotene gel 0.1% QD. The primary endpoint will be the comparison between the change in NPF score of plaques treated with excimer laser and those treated with sham treatment.

The secondary objectives are to compare the number of excimer light treatments and time necessary to achieve an average lesion assessment score of 0 to 1 in subjects treated with acitretin 25 mg PO or tazarotene gel 0.1% QD, and to evaluate adverse events related to combinations of the study treatments.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

13

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • Utah
      • Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, 84132
        • University of Utah Department of Dermatology

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Must give written informed consent
  • Must be at least 18 years old
  • Must have been diagnosed with stable plaque type psoriasis covering between 1 and 5% BSA
  • NPF-PS ≥8 (based additive scores averaged over all lesions for erythema, scale, and thickness range of score = 0-5)
  • No systemic or phototherapy in the 4 wks prior to entering the study
  • No topical therapy other than emollients (no corticosteroids, vitamin D analogs, vitamin A analogs) in the 2 wks prior to entering the study
  • Women on tazarotene gel must not be pregnant nor planning to become pregnant during the study and must be on two forms of birth control
  • Subjects known to not tolerate oral acitretin at 25 mg/day and women of child-bearing potential may be enrolled and treated with topical tazarotene gel 0.1%

Exclusion Criteria:

Candidates will be excluded from study entry if any of the following exclusion criteria exist at the time of enrollment:

  • Unstable disease
  • Only treatable sites are in intertriginous areas or on face
  • Subjects unable to tolerate frequency of visits
  • NPF-PS severity score <8 additive score of erythema, scale, and thickness, averaged over all lesions
  • History of inability to tolerate topical tazarotene 0.1% gel and or acitretin 25 mg/day
  • Women of childbearing potential are excluded from the actretin arm of the study.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: acitretin and active excimer laser
patients enrolled in the acitretin arm will be treated with acitretin 25 mg daily and excimer (active) to randomly assigned left or right side of body psoriasis lesions.
Acitretin 25 mg oral daily for 12 weeks
Lesions on randomly assigned left or right side of body were treated with 308nm excimer laser.
Experimental: acitretin and sham excimer laser
Patients in this arm were treated with acitretin 25 mg daily and sham (placebo) excimer laser to randomly assigned left or right side of body psoriasis lesions.
Acitretin 25 mg oral daily for 12 weeks
Lesions on randomly assigned left or right side of body were treated with sham excimer laser (opaque cover on the laser device).
Experimental: tazarotene and active excimer laser
patients enrolled in this arm were treated with tazarotene 0.1% gel topical application daily and excimer (active) laser to randomly assigned left or right side of body psoriasis lesions.
Lesions on randomly assigned left or right side of body were treated with 308nm excimer laser.
Topical tazarotene 0.1% gel was applied daily to active lesions.
Experimental: tazarotene and sham excimer laser
patients enrolled in this arm were treated with tazarotene 0.1% gel topical application daily and sham excimer laser to randomly assigned left or right side of body psoriasis lesions.
Lesions on randomly assigned left or right side of body were treated with sham excimer laser (opaque cover on the laser device).
Topical tazarotene 0.1% gel was applied daily to active lesions.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in the NPF Psoriasis Score of Plaques
Time Frame: week 8
mean % change in the National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF) psoriasis score of the target plaques [higher percent change in NPF score is consistent with improvement, while higher absolute NPF score is consistent with worse disease, minimum score of 0 (no disease) and maximum score of 30 (worst disease)]
week 8

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Number of Patients That Achieved an Average Lesion Assessment Score of 0 or 1 at Week 12.
Time Frame: 8 weeks
number of patients who achieved average lesion assessment score of 0 or 1 by the Target Plaque Sum Score (TPSS) for each arm/intervention. For the TPSS, the target plaque was assessed separately for induration, scaling, and erythema using a 6-point severity scale (0 = none and 5 = severe) and the scores were summed to produce the Target Plaque Sum Score [15-point scale; maximum (most severe) score 15].
8 weeks
Number of Participants With Adverse Events
Time Frame: 12 weeks
We will collect number and types of adverse events for the excimer-treated vs. sham-treated sites
12 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Kristina C Duffin, MD, University of Utah

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

January 1, 2010

Primary Completion (Actual)

September 1, 2011

Study Completion (Actual)

October 1, 2011

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 25, 2010

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 25, 2010

First Posted (Estimate)

March 29, 2010

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 26, 2019

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 6, 2019

Last Verified

June 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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