drugsTreatmentEstablished

Methoxsalen (extracorporeal photopheresis)

aka 8-Methoxypsoralen, 8-MOP

Uvadex is the drug used in photopheresis, where a patient's white cells are drawn off, treated with methoxsalen and ultraviolet light, and returned; it is approved for the skin symptoms of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma and widely used for graft-versus-host disease.

Extracorporeal photopheresis was developed by Richard Edelson at Yale in the 1980s. The sterile methoxsalen solution Uvadex was approved by the FDA in 1999 for palliative treatment of the skin manifestations of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma unresponsive to other therapy, used with the THERAKOS photopheresis system. Responses occur in about half of patients with erythrodermic disease and Sézary syndrome, and the treatment is unusually well tolerated. Its largest use today is off label in steroid-refractory chronic graft-versus-host disease after stem cell transplantation and in transplant rejection. Oral methoxsalen has been used with UVA (PUVA) for psoriasis since the 1950s.

See it in action

A psoralen that, when activated by UVA light, cross-links DNA in treated lymphocytes; reinfusing the damaged malignant T cells provokes an immune response against the clone.

1. What happens next: the small molecule schematic

How radiation therapy works, step by step · animated schematic, not to scale; chosen from the modality "Psoralen photosensitiser used with ultraviolet A on white cells outside the body"

Radiation Therapy →

2. Step by step

auto-advancing · hover to pause

1.Methoxsalen (extracorporeal photopheresis) slips into a pocket on its target.

Modality

Psoralen photosensitiser used with ultraviolet A on white cells outside the body

Mechanism

A psoralen that, when activated by UVA light, cross-links DNA in treated lymphocytes; reinfusing the damaged malignant T cells provokes an immune response against the clone.

Brand / code

Uvadex

Regulatory

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Approvals

Region	Year	Indication
US	1999	Palliative treatment of skin manifestations of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma unresponsive to other therapy, by extracorporeal photopheresis

Trials

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Trials recruiting now

Recruiting trials near you · live from ClinicalTrials.gov

Methoxsalen (extracorporeal photopheresis)

intervention: Methoxsalen

Open on ClinicalTrials.gov →

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