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New Study Published in the New England Journal of Medicine Offers Hope to Lupus Patients With Kidney Disease; Transplant Drugs Seen as Better Alternatives to 'Gold Standard' Therapy.

Article Excerpt
MIAMI, Fla., March 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Drugs used to prevent rejection in transplant patients are proving equally valuable in the fight against lupus nephritis (lupus kidney disease), according to researchers at the University of Miami in a study published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

Lupus nephritis is the most common severe complication of the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Approximately 1.5 million Americans have SLE and half of those will develop lupus kidney disease. Lupus nephritis increases the risk for premature death and chronic kidney failure, a condition that may require chronic dialysis or transplantation.

In the study, "Sequential Therapies for Proliferative Lupus Nephritis," researchers showed that maintenance with daily oral treatment with one of the most widely prescribed transplant medications, mycophenolate mofetil (MMF, also known as CellCept(R)) or the older anti-rejection drug azathioprine (AZA) was more effective and safer than the current "gold standard" therapy, intravenous quarterly pulses of the chemotherapy drug cyclophosphamide (IVCY, also known as Cytoxan(R)) in the long term treatment of lupus nephritis.

"We're very excited about our study results that demonstrate that new maintenance treatment regimens with MMF or AZA are more effective...