Dr Sue Levy: 9:29am Dec 19, 2007: If this is a marketing text, surely you are not confined to a literal translation - obviously XXX is being put forward as an ALTERNATIVE FIRST LINE TREATMENT. Andy THEODOROU: 9:41am Dec 19, 2007: Perhaps I am being too fussy, but are you telling me this sounds OK "XXX are currently the standard first-line treatment after YYY".
For info, we are talking about Crohn's disease, and YYY are corticosteroids, while XXX are immunosuppressants. Drmanu49: 11:22am Dec 19, 2007: As Sue suggested: "XXX are currently the standard alternative first-line treatment after YYY" Michael Lotz: 11:32am Dec 19, 2007: I agree that adding "alternative" improves it :"XXX are currently the standard alternative first-line treatment after YYY"
Dr Sue Levy: 3:34pm Dec 19, 2007: I think there are several ways you can say this, but you need some knowledge about how Crohn's is treated... e.g. With corticosteroids, immunosuppressants are part of today's first-line treatment arsenal... blabla etc Dr Sue Levy: 3:35pm Dec 19, 2007: And the client's approval to tailor the text to the target - not forgetting that the French is pretty nul.
Explanation: that would be an accurate translation for the context you suggest
Michael Lotz United States Specializes in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 540
Note from asker to answerer
Thanks Michael et al. Your informed input much appreciated
Notes to answerer
Asker:
Asker: I am not very comfortable with standard first-line treatment for the reasons Eric provides. Especially because in this context Class YYY is actually the mainstay of treatment and first-line therapy.
Even for a marketing doc this is going too far !
How about "standard treatment" ?
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +5