What the trial was testing
The SELECT-GCA enrolled 429 patients with vasculitis. The study was sponsored by AbbVie and tracked outcomes across the full group of patients who matched the trial's eligibility profile.
It was a large trial designed to confirm whether the treatment works well enough for wider use. Trials at this stage are designed to produce evidence regulators and physicians can act on — not just observations to follow up later.
What the results showed
46% of patients taking upadacitinib stayed in remission versus 29% on steroids alone.
The New England journal of medicine · 2025 · NCT03725202
These findings — that nearly half maintained disease control with less steroid use — were published in the The New England journal of medicine and represent the headline result of the study.
Researchers tracked outcomes across 429 patients enrolled in the trial. The result was consistent enough across the group that the team felt confident reporting it.
What this means for patients
For patients with vasculitis, this result changes the calculus on what to ask their care team about. Whether it changes day-to-day care depends on factors like disease subtype, prior treatments, and where the patient is in their care journey.
What you can do now
Upadacitinib is FDA-approved for other inflammatory conditions but not yet specifically for giant cell arteritis. If you have giant cell arteritis that's hard to control or you want to reduce steroid use, talk to your doctor about whether this treatment might be an option through off-label use or clinical trials.
Eligibility for the treatments mentioned above depends on specific test results and clinical history. Bring this summary, the trial name, and your most recent labs or pathology report to your next visit.
Open vasculitis trials
Atacicept in Multiple Glomerular Diseases
A study to find how well atacicept works and how safe it is in participants with autoimmune kidney disease.
National Registry of Rare Kidney Diseases
The goal of this National Registry is to is to collect information from patients with rare kidney diseases, so that it that can be used for research. The purpose of this research is to: * Develop Clinical Guidelines for specific rare kidney diseases. These are written recommendations on how to diagnose and treat a medical condition. * Audit treatments and outcomes. An audit makes checks to see if what should be done is being done and asks if it could be done better. * Further the development of future treatments. Participants will be invited to participate on clinical trials and other studies. The registry has the capacity to feedback relevant information to patients and in conjunction with Patient Knows Best (Home - Patients Know Best), allows patients to provide information themselves, including their own reported quality of life and outcome measures.