Treatment of lichen planopilaris: methotrexate or cyclosporine a therapy?

Because of irreversible outcome of the lichen planopilaris (LPP), systemic therapy should be used in early inflammatory stages of the disease, without allowing the irreversible scar formation and permanent hair loss.

We assessed the efficacy and safety of methotrexate (MTX) and cyclosporine A (CsA) in the management of recalcitrant, extensive LPP and compared their efficacy and safety profile.

We retrospectively analysed the 16 LPP cases treated with either CsA or MTX therapy. Clinical improvement was defined as the absence of reported symptoms, lack of progression and reduction in erythema and follicular hyperkeratosis found in SIAscopic images.

A total of 16 patients received either CsA (six cases) or MTX (10 cases) therapy. The dosage of CsA was between 3 and 5 mg/kg/day. The initial dosage of MTX was 10-15 mg/wk and tapered gradually. The clinical improvement was demonstrated significantly at SIAscopic images taken at the third months of therapy.

Our observations suggest that both MTX and CsA therapies provide similar clinical efficacy at the end of first month of therapy with dosages used in psoriasis therapy. MTX was found to be better tolerated in this study.