Highlights
Drug Research
- Mycophenolate mofetil (CellCept) works better than cyclophosphamide and has far fewer side effects, according to a major study in the New England Journal of Medicine. This study supports other recent research that suggests that CellCept should be a first-line treatment for patients with mild to moderate lupus kidney disease. However, the drug may not be appropriate for patients with advanced or rapidly progressing kidney disease. Unlike cyclophosphamide, which is delivered intravenously, CellCept is taken by mouth.
- Short-term hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is safe for women who experience early menopause due to immunosuppressant drugs. HRT does not appear to increase the risk of lupus flares.
- Stem cell transplantation may someday provide an alternative to blood-thinning drugs for patients with antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). The transplant uses stem cells cultivated from a patient’s own blood or bone marrow. Many patients with APS need to take blood-thinning drugs on a lifelong basis. The transplant procedure is still experimental but is showing promise in studies.
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) and Pregnancy
- SLE during pregnancy raises the risk for premature and low birth weight babies.
- A 2005 study found that women who had lupus but did not know it were 10 times more likely to have a stillborn baby than healthy women. The risk of stillbirth was four times greater for women diagnosed with lupus.
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SLE and Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
Patients with lupus have a significantly higher risk of developing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) than healthy patients, suggests a review in the Archives of Internal Medicine. The risk for NHL is also greater for patients with other autoimmune disorders. NHL is a cancer of the lymph nodes.
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