Therapeutic options for cutaneous lupus erythematosus: recent advances and future prospects

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Treatment and prevention are of critical importance in patients with cutaneous lupus erythematosus (CLE), as the disease can have a devastating effect on patient well-being and quality of life.

Areas Covered: We conducted a selective search of the PubMed database for articles published between December 2010 and November 2015. This review encompasses both non-pharmaceutical (photoprotection, smoking cessation, drug withdrawal, and vitamin D replacement) and pharmaceutical (topicals, antimalarials, immunosuppressives, biologics, etc.) interventions used in the treatment of CLE.

Expert Commentary: Recent work has expanded our understanding of established therapies as well as introduced new treatments for consideration, though existing medications still prove inadequate for a subset of patients. Changes in trial design may help to alleviate this issue.

KEYWORDS:

• Cutaneous lupus erythematosus
• topical calcineurin inhibitors
• antimalarials
• immunosuppressives
• immunomodulators
• biologics
• Cutaneous Lupus Erythematosus Disease Area and Severity IndexTM (CLASITM)

Declaration of interest

This project is supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Health Administration, Office of Research and Development, Biomedical Laboratory Research and Development 5 I01 BX000706-04 and NIH 1R21AR066286 to VP Werth. VP Werth has grants from Celgene, Biogen, Janssen, Amgen. She consults for Biogen, Medimmune, Celgene, Pfizer, Janssen, GSK, and Sanofi. VP Werth developed the CLASI^TM, and the copyright is owned by the University of Pennsylvania. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.