Treatment of lupus nephritis (LN) remains challenging.

To assess the efficacy and safety of a multitarget therapy consisting of tacrolimus, mycophenolate mofetil, and steroid compared with intravenous cyclophosphamide and steroid as induction therapy for LN.

24-week randomized, open-label, multicenter study. (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT00876616).

26 renal centers in China.

Adults (aged 18 to 65 years) with biopsy-proven LN.

Tacrolimus, 4 mg/d, and mycophenolate mofetil, 1.0 g/d, versus intravenous cyclophosphamide with a starting dose of 0.75 (adjusted to 0.5 to 1.0) g/m2 of body surface area every 4 weeks for 6 months. Both groups received 3 days of pulse methylprednisolone followed by a tapering course of oral prednisone therapy.

The primary end point was complete remission at 24 weeks. Secondary end points included overall response (complete and partial remission), time to overall response, and adverse events.

After 24 weeks of therapy, more patients in the multitarget group (45.9%) than in the intravenous cyclophosphamide group (25.6%) showed complete remission (difference, 20.3 percentage points [95% CI, 10.0 to 30.6 percentage points]; P < 0.001). The overall response incidence was higher in the multitarget group than in the intravenous cyclophosphamide group (83.5% vs. 63.0%; difference, 20.4 percentage points [CI, 10.3 to 30.6 percentage points]; P < 0.001), and the median time to overall response was shorter in the multitarget group (difference, -4.1 weeks [CI, -7.9 to -2.1 weeks]). Incidence of adverse events did not differ between the multitarget and intravenous cyclophosphamide groups (50.3% [91 of 181] vs. 52.5% [95 of 181]).

The study was limited to 24 weeks of follow-up.

Multitarget therapy provides superior efficacy compared with intravenous cyclophosphamide as induction therapy for LN.

National Basic Research Program of China, National Key Technology R&D Program.