No additional effect of topical calcipotriol on narrow-band UVB phototherapy in patients with generalized vitiligo

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: There is no definite cure for vitiligo; however, treatment responses with photobiological modalities are quite acceptable. Of all these, narrow-band UVB phototherapy was proposed rather recently. Calcipotriol has been shown to have stimulating activity on melanogenesis besides immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory effects. This study was performed to determine whether adding topical calcipotriol to narrow-band UVB phototherapy enhances the efficacy of treatment. METHODS: In this prospective, single-blinded (investigator), right-left comparison clinical study, 20 patients with generalized vitiligo were enrolled. Symmetrical lesions with similar sizes, bilaterally distributed on arms, legs, hands, feet or trunk were selected as reference lesions. In addition to narrow-band UVB, totally 96 treatment sessions, received two or three times weekly, the patients were asked to apply 0.005% topical calcipotriol on the selected side of the reference lesions twice daily. Then, they were monitored at the end of every 24-session interval. RESULTS: Cosmetically acceptable repigmentation was observed in 55% (11/20) of the patients without taking calcipotriol into account. There was statistically significant better response on the side that calcipotriol was not applied at the 24th session (P < 0.05). No statistically significant difference was found between the calcipotriol-treated and non-treated sides at 48th, 72th, and 96th sessions (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Our data confirm that, narrow-band UVB phototherapy is effective by itself in vitiligo, and show that adding topical calcipotriol does not improve treatment outcome.