Embodiments disclosed herein provide systems and methods for selectively discarding Diameter protocol messages in an LTE communication system. In a particular embodiment, a method provides receiving a plurality of Diameter protocol messages at the communication control system and determining a measure of Diameter message congestion. If the measure of Diameter message congestion satisfies a congestion criteria, the method provides determining a priority of at least one message of the plurality of Diameter protocol messages. Messages associated with communication sessions participating in a data session have higher priority than messages associated with communication sessions currently establishing and the messages associated with communication sessions currently establishing have higher priority than messages associated with initiating communication sessions. The method further provides selectively discarding the at least one message based on the priority of the at least one message relative to priorities of other messages of the plurality of Diameter protocol messages.