A pill given to cancer patients, which helped them gain hair within 5 months has given new hope to sufferers of Alopecia, a disease that leads to partial or total hair loss.
Lead researcher Dr Raphael Clynes said that though they had just started testing the drug, ruxolitinib, in patients, it could have a "dramatic positive impact" on a lot of people if it proved to be effective and safe, Metro.co.uk reported.
Columbia University Medical Centre researchers conducted the pilot trial, which followed tests on mice using two drugs known as JAK inhibitors that could be taken in pill form and obstruct immune pathways.
Clynes said that they still needed to study the drug further in order to make sure that ruxolitinib, which is approved for the treatment of bone marrow cancer in the US and EU, should be used in alopecia areata.
The research appears in the latest edition of Nature Medicine journal.