A report is presented of a 5-year clinical trial during which 78 patients suffering from discoid lupus erythematosus were treated with 1-percent betametasone 17-valerate in an oil/water emulsion cream. In 10 cases, local treatment had to be supplemented by the oral administration of chloroquine for shorter or longer periods. On the whole, this therapy represented a great advance, the majority of the patients being kept completely or almost completely free of symptoms by means of local treatment alone. No steroid-induced atrophy of the epidermis was observed. It should be emphasized that the patients were checked at intervals of a few months and were carefully instructed as to the procedure to be followed during the local treatment.