Current treatment of lupus nephritis

Abstract

This review on the management of lupus nephritis is based on the results of randomized clinical trials, and discusses the principles of treatment and the current options for induction and maintenance therapy. The respective place of mycophenolate mofetil and intravenous cyclophosphamide are balanced, taking into account efficacy, safety and patients’ perspective. The authors anticipate that, in a few years, when long-term data on lupus nephritis patients induced with mycophenolate mofetil becomes available, it is probably that intravenous cyclophosphamide, which has been for so long the ‘standard of care’, will be prescribed only in specialized conditions such as documented necrotizing vasculitis.