Alitretinoin versus phototherapy as the first-line treatment in adults with severe chronic hand eczema: the ALPHA RCT

Hand eczema is common and a cause of morbidity and occupational disability. When education, irritant/contact allergen avoidance, moisturisation and topical corticosteroids are insufficient to control chronic hand eczema, ultraviolet therapy or systemic immune-modifying drugs are used. There is no treatment pathway generally accepted by UK dermatologists.

Compare alitretinoin and ultraviolet therapy as first-line therapy in terms of disease activity at 12 weeks post planned start of treatment.

Prospective, multicentre, open-label, two-arm parallel group, adaptive randomised controlled trial with one planned interim analysis, and an economic evaluation.

UK secondary care dermatology outpatient clinics.

Patients with severe chronic hand eczema unresponsive to at least 4 weeks of treatment with potent topical corticosteroids.

Natural logarithm of the Hand Eczema Severity Index + 1, 12 weeks post planned start of treatment.

Participants randomised 1 : 1 by minimisation to alitretinoin or ultraviolet therapy for 12 to 24 weeks.

Blinded primary end-point assessor.

Intention-to-treat population: 441 (100.0%) participants; 220 (49.9%) alitretinoin and 221 (50.1%) ultraviolet therapy. At least one dose was received by 212 (96.4%) alitretinoin and 196 (88.7%) ultraviolet therapy participants.

The unadjusted median (interquartile range) relative change in hand eczema severity index at 12 weeks was 30% (10-70%) of that at baseline for alitretinoin compared with 50% (20-100%) for ultraviolet therapy. There was a statistically significant benefit of alitretinoin compared with ultraviolet therapy at 12 weeks, with an estimated fold change or relative difference (95% confidence interval) = 0.66 (0.52 to 0.82), p = 0.0003 at 12 weeks. There was no evidence of a difference at 24 or 52 weeks, with the estimated fold change (95% confidence interval) equal to 0.92 (0.798 to 1.08) and 1.27 (0.97 to 1.67), respectively.

Fifty-nine per cent allocated to alitretinoin and 61% allocated to ultraviolet therapy achieved a clear/almost clear assessment during the trial period. Differential treatment compliance observed: 145 (65.9%) alitretinoin and 53 (24.0%) ultraviolet therapy participants confirmed compliance (≥ 80% received, no treatment breaks > 7 days during first 12 weeks). High levels of missing data were observed.

One hundred and thirty-five reportable adverse events across 79 participants, 55 (25.0%) alitretinoin and 24 (10.9%) ultraviolet therapy. Four serious adverse events (two alitretinoin, two ultraviolet therapy). Four pregnancies reported (three alitretinoin, one ultraviolet therapy). No new safety signals were detected.

As a first-line therapy, alitretinoin showed more rapid improvement and superiority to ultraviolet therapy at week 12. This difference was not observed at later time points. Alitretinoin is cost-effective at weeks 12 and 52. Ultraviolet therapy is cost-effective after 10 years, with a high degree of uncertainty. Hand eczema severity index may be a useful primary outcome measure for hand eczema trials; ALPHA results will inform future trials.

Treatment compliance was poor for ultraviolet therapy. Regular twice weekly treatment was not received by most patients. Assessment of long-term effects of randomised treatments was complicated by use of second-line treatments post treatment phase.

Further analysis of substudies and pilot data will provide valuable information for future studies. A clear need for better therapeutic approaches for severe chronic hand eczema remains. Future studies will need to further address long-term benefits of treatments given.

This trial is registered as ISRCTN80206075.

This award was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme (NIHR award ref: 12/186/01) and is published in full in Health Technology Assessment; Vol. 28, No. 59. See the NIHR Funding and Awards website for further award information.