TY - JOUR T1 - Established and experimental medical therapy of pulmonary sarcoidosis JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J DO - 10.1183/09031936.00060612 SP - erj00606-2012 AU - Robert P Baughman AU - Hilario Nunes AU - Nadera J. Sweiss AU - Elyse E Lower Y1 - 2013/01/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/early/2013/02/07/09031936.00060612.abstract N2 - The treatment options for pulmonary sarcoidosis have increased over the past ten years. As new treatments have been introduced, the best way to assess and compare treatments remains unknown. The goal of this review is to discuss the standard treatments for pulmonary sarcoidosis including glucocorticoids and cytotoxic agents such as methotrexate, azathioprine and leflunomide and compare them to the newer biologic agents such as infliximab and adalimumab. We also discuss some novel treatments which are currently being evaluated. To compare these different regimens, we look at the measures used to assess response. These include pulmonary function, chest imaging, steroid sparing potential, and more recently improvements in quality of life measures. While there is not yet a standard assessment for response, there is a growing consensus that response to treatment may include improvement of one or more of the following: forced vital capacity, chest imaging, and steroid sparing. Several drugs used for pulmonary sarcoidosis have demonstrated improvement in one or more of these measures. ER -