Corticosteroid minimization in renal transplantation: Careful patient selection enables feasibility

Table 3 Characteristics of major randomized corticosteroid withdrawal trials

Ref.	Patient number	Immunological risk	Timing of CS withdrawal	Induction immunosuppression	Maintenance immunosuppression	Biopsy-proven acute rejection (%)	Allograft/patient survival (%)	Follow-up (mo)
Vanrenterghem et al[20]	252	Low	At month 3	No	CsA, MMF	23b	95/99	12
	248		Standard CS			14b	96/98
Smak Gregoor et al[24]	76	Low	After month 6	No	CsA, MMF	4.0a	98/97	24
	73		Standard CS			1.4	97/97
Vanrenterghem et al[21]	279	Low	After month 3	No	TAC, MMF	5.9ad	93/99	6
	277		Standard CS			0.9d	94/98

P > 0.05 for all comparisons unless otherwise stated.

^aAfter CS discontinuation,

^bP = 0.008,

^dP = 0.004. CS: Corticosteroids; CsA: Cyclosporine; MMF: Mycophenolate mofetil; TAC: Tacrolimus.