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Let us take this opportunity, on World Lupus Day, to revisit this chronic autoimmune disease, which triggers an inflammatory response directed against affected patients’ own immune systems. One of the forms of the disease, known as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), affects several organs of the body: skin, joints, kidneys, nervous system, etc.

Treatment of SLE poses a challenge owing to its highly diverse clinical signs, and the difficulty in predicting its progression and prognosis for each patient. Although belimumab is currently the only approved biological medicine (biomedicine), other biomedicines, such as rituximab, are sometimes used in certain situations refractory to conventional therapies.

A panel of 61 international French-speaking experts from different specialist medical fields (rheumatology, internal medicine, nephrology, dermatology, pediatrics, and cardiology) was recently asked to draw up recommendations on the proper use of biomedicines in SLE. Four issues were examined:

– What symptoms of the disease can benefit from a biomedicine, and how should failure of conventional therapies be defined?

– What type of biomedicine and concomitant medication should be used?

– What information should be given to patients?

– How do we evaluate treatment efficacy, and when should treatment be discontinued?

For further information on these recommendations, please contact Jacques-Eric Gottenberg, head of the expert panel.