VIRTUAL-UK VItiligo RegisTry for adUlts And chiLdren in the UK
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Multi-centre, prospective, observational clinical registry of paediatric and adult patients with vitiligo on phototherapy, or novel topical/systemic immune-modulatory therapies.
IRAS ID
331128
Contact name
Viktoria Eleftheriadou
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 11 months, 28 days
Research summary
The purpose of the research study is to collect information from adult and paediatric patients with vitiligo, starting certain treatments, such as phototherapy, oral corticosteroids, or novel treatments, as well as from patients with vitiligo who are on other topical treatments such as topical calcineurin inhibitors and topical steroids. As vitiligo is often a long-term condition, it is important to establish how well these treatment modalities work with regard to improvement in disease severity, quality of life and also safety, especially when these are used for longer periods of time.
All medicines prescribed for vitiligo in the UK have already undergone careful testing in clinical trials before being approved for use. However, as clinical trials are run for a relatively short period of time (on average up to a year), have limited numbers of participants compared with those which will be ultimately treated with the medicine and may exclude patients with additional diseases (co-morbidities), the picture we get from clinical trials is not complete.
The VIRTUAL-UK project will therefore fill this gap in knowledge and collect information (data) on patients treated with phototherapy, systemic immuno-modulators as well as novel topical immunomodulators, attending regular dermatology clinics. Patients who have other health problems but nevertheless start one of these medications will also be included, making the results more representative of the “real world” use of these medicines. Rates of medical side effects will be compared between these treatment modalities, and the results will then be used to provide clinicians and patients with a better picture of any potential increased risk of these therapies.
We plan to run this study for at least 2 years, but we may continue beyond that if we obtain further funds. The study is conducted in collaboration with the British Association of Dermatologists (BAD).REC name
North West - Liverpool Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/NW/0070
Date of REC Opinion
27 Mar 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion