2023-09-14 11:48:59
“Biological drugs have dramatically changed the management of asthma, especially in the more severe forms of the disease, which until a few years ago could only be managed with the use of systemic corticosteroids, with the well-known related side effects.” Biological treatments “offered a personalized medicine solution, were extremely effective and safe and made it possible not only to aspire to an improvement in respiratory function and complete control of symptoms, but also to aim for an extremely ambitious goal, which is that of remission”. Thus, Matteo Bonini, associate professor of Respiratory Diseases at the Agostino Gemelli University Hospital in Rome, at the 2023 edition of the International Congress of the European Respiratory Society (Ers) which took place in Milan.
On the concept of remission, “at the moment – specifies the expert – there is no unanimous agreement” in the scientific community. “Some speak of a clinical remission as ‘no use of steroids, no flare-ups and control of symptoms’ and others of a ‘complete remission’, also adding the concept of respiratory function. We have interesting data of a retrospective nature. For example – explains Bonini – on benralizumab” the data show that “subjects treated with this biological drug undergo remission in a third of cases, and that they maintain this state of remission for an extremely long period, equal to 2 years, in three quarters” of cases. Furthermore, a portion of subjects, “although not showing a state of remission after the first 12 months, develops it over time” and this should suggest to us that “probably, when studying this endpoint we should also wait for longer evaluation periods”.
Currently “these data – underlines Bonini – should be confirmed by prospective studies designed specifically on this endpoint. In this sense, the international scientific world, and also the Italian one, is taking action”. At a national level there are “initiatives coordinated by Italian societies of the respiratory system, allergology and clinical immunology, which – clarifies the expert – through national networks such as Sani”, Severe Asthma Network Italy, aim to “better define the concept of remission and to have even more reassuring data which can represent a new extremely ambitious goal for patients suffering from severe asthma”.
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