How is the disease treated?

Because Wegener's granulomatosis is often a life-threatening disease, it is treated with a variety of powerful drugs that have been shown to be life-saving.

Treatment usually includes corticosteroid medicines, such as prednisone, and chemotherapy drugs, such as cyclophosphamide or methotrexate. These drugs suppress the immune system and usually induce remission (the complete absence of all signs of the disease). Improvement usually occurs within days to weeks. When the disease is in remission, patients will reduce the dosage of these medicines, but will continue treatment until the disease has been in continuous remission for one year.

The treatment used for Wegener's granulomatosis has also been successfully applied to other vasculitic diseases.