• Young Ho Lee and Gwan Gyu Song.
• Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Korea University Anam Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine, 73, Goryeodae-ro, Seongbuk-gu, 02841, Seoul, Korea (Republic of). lyhcgh@korea.ac.kr.
• Z Rheumatol. 2021 Sep 20.

AimThis study aimed to compare the effectiveness and safety of voclosporin + mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), tacrolimus + MMF, and monotherapy with MMF or cyclophosphamide as induction treatment for lupus nephritis.MethodsThe study included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluated the effectiveness and safety of voclosporin + MMF, tacrolimus + MMF, and monotherapy for induction treatment in patients with lupus nephritis. To incorporate direct and indirect evidence from RCTs, we used a Bayesian network meta-analysis.ResultsFour RCTs, including 936 participants, met the inclusion criteria. Tacrolimus + MMF substantially increased the incidence of complete remission relative to that following monotherapy (odds ratio [OR] 2.85; 95% credible interval [CrI] 1.87-4.39). Tacrolimus + MMF was also more effective than voclosporin + MMF (OR 1.43; 95% CrI 0.80-2.57). Tacrolimus + MMF showed the greatest chance of being the optimal treatment for overall response (surface under the cumulative ranking curve [SUCRA] = 0.942), followed by voclosporin + MMF (SUCRA = 0.558) and monotherapy (SUCRA = 0.001). In terms of safety based on severe event rates, monotherapy had the greatest chance of being the safest treatment (SUCRA = 0.903), followed by voclosporin + MMF (SUCRA = 0.517) and tacrolimus + MMF (SUCRA = 0.081).ConclusionTacrolimus + MMF and voclosporin + MMF were more effective than monotherapy, and tacrolimus + MMF was the most effective induction treatment for lupus nephritis patients. However, tacrolimus + MMF did pose a greater risk of serious adverse events than monotherapy.© 2021. Springer Medizin Verlag GmbH, ein Teil von Springer Nature.

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