Allergist Canonica, ‘severe asthma in remission with biological therapies’

2023-09-11 14:24:28

In the treatment of severe asthma “today there is a revolution, already implemented in other disciplines. Thanks to the new biological therapies we have been able to have a qualitative leap, to the point of defining ‘disease-modifying’ biological therapies, i.e. capable of modifying the disease”, up to clinical remission. Giorgio Walter Canonica, head of the Asthma and Allergology Personalized Medicine Center at Humanitas University in Milan, said this on the sidelines of the International Congress of the European Respiratory Society (Ers) 2023, taking place in Milan from 9 to 13 September.

“Severe asthma – explains the specialist – accounts for approximately 10% of all asthma” and is characterized because it is that form “that has no disease control, that is, it continues to have symptoms and exacerbations, therefore asthma attacks, despite maximal therapy with classic inhalation therapies”.

With the use of disease-modifying biological therapies, the expert underlines, “instead of the usual evaluation parameters – the Vmes or Fev1 (maximum expiratory volume in the first second, ed.), the asthma attack or the symptoms – we have passed to a multi-criteria evaluation. The first – explains Canonica – is the non-use of oral corticosteroids, which create enormous side effects and increase mortality in subjects with asthma”. Therefore, “no symptoms, no asthma attacks and stable lung function. This – he concludes – is what is called complete remission, a cultural leap, and it is also a notable leap for our patients”.