Corticosteroid minimization in renal transplantation: Careful patient selection enables feasibility

Table 2 Characteristics of major randomized corticosteroid avoidance trials (the trial by Woodle et al[8] is described separately in table 1); P > 0.05 for all comparisons unless otherwise stated

Ref.	Patient number	Immunological risk	Timing of CS withdrawal	Induction immunosuppression	Maintenance immunosuppression	Biopsy-proven acute rejection (%)	Allograf/patient survival (%)	Follow-up (mo)
Vítko et al[10]	151	Low/moderate	Day 1	No	TAC, MMF	30.5f	97/99	6
	147	(PRA < 50%, first transplant)	Standard CS			8.2f	96/100
Laftavi et al[13]	30	Low (PRA < 30%, first transplant)	Day 7	rALG	TAC, MMF	13	NR	12
	30		Standard CS			11
Kumar et al[12]	150	Low	Day 2	Basiliximab	TAC or CsA, MMF or sirolimus	16	78/91	36
	150	(PRA < 10%)	Standard CS			14	79/89
Vincenti et al[11]	112	Low (PRA < 20%, first transplant)	No CS	Basiliximab	CsA, EC-MPS	31.5a	96/95	12
	115		Day 7			26.1b	98/98
	109		Standard CS			14.7ba	97/98
Hanaway et al[17]	164	Low	Day 5	Alemtuzumab	TAC, MMF	10d	93/95	36
	171	(PRA < 20%, first transplant)	Day 5	Basiliximab		22d	92/98
Haynes et al[16]	426	Unselected	No CS	Alemtuzumab	Low-dose TAC-MMF/ Standard TAC-MMF	7h	96/97	6
	426	patients	Standard CS	Basiliximab		16h	97/99

^aP = 0.046,

^bP = 0.004,

^dP = 0.003,

^fP < 0.001,

^hP = 0.0001. CS: Corticosteroids; CsA: Cyclosporine; EC-MPS: Enteric-coated mycophenolate sodium; MMF: Mycophenolate mofetil; NR: Not reported; PRA: Panel-reactive antibodies; rALG: Rabbit antilymphocyte globulin; TAC: Tacrolimus.