Familial SLE: sustained drug-free remission in a mother successfully treated for anal cancer, but development of SLE in a 16-year old daughter.

The immunopathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus has been thoroughly investigated recently, and genome-wide association studies have identified genes statistically associated with lupus. However, the progression to overt disease is dependent on the activation of environmental factors ('triggers'), among which oestrogen stimulation is prominent. Here we report the case of a mother with long-standing SLE entering into long term drug-free remission following intensive, menopause-inducing chemoradiotherapy for cancer, and the opposite case of her daughter, who developed SLE following the initiation of her menstrual cycle.

Current state and future directions of autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in systemic lupus erythematosus.

Autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT) has been proposed as a treatment modality which may arrest the autoimmune disease process and lead to sustained treatment-free remissions. Since the first consensus statement in 1997, approximately 200 autologous bone marrow or haematopoietic stem cell transplantations (HSCTs) have been reported worldwide for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The current state of AHSCT in SLE was reviewed at a recent meeting of the autoimmune working party of the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation.

Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) having developed malignant lymphomas. Complete remission of lymphoma following high-dose chemotherapy, but not of SLE.

The development of malignant lymphomas, generally of the non-Hodgkin type (NHL), and with a preference to diffuse large cell B lymphomas (DLCBL), in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), has been analysed in an exhaustive recent literature. The combination of germline and somatic mutations, persistent immune overstimulation and the impairment of immune surveillance facilitated by immunosuppressive drugs, is thought to be at the origin of the increased lymphoma genesis. However the treatment and course of such affected patients is less known, and prognosis is generally estimated as poor.