Severe asthma and eligibility for biologics in a Brazilian cohort
Severe asthma and eligibility for biologics in a Brazilian cohort
Data
2021
Autores
Mello, Luane Marques
Viana, Karynna P.
Santos, Felipe Moraes dos
Saturnino, Luciana T. M.
Kormann, Michelle L.
Lazaridis, Evelyn
Torreão, Cinthia D.
Soares, Claudia R.
Abreu, Gabriela A.
Lima, Valmar Bião de
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The Journal of Asthma
Resumo
Objective: This study aims to describe the eligibility for biologic therapies for severe asthma
(SA) in a cohort of patients attending the Program for Control of Asthma (ProAR) in
Bahia, Brazil.
Methods: Data from SA patients (18 years old) attending the ProAR, that were included in
a case-control study conducted from 2013 to 2015, were used to reassess patients according
to a modified ERS/ATS 2014 SA criteria. Patients were then classified according to the eligi-
bility for SA biological therapy based on current prescription labels.
Results: From 544 patients in the cohort, 531 (97.6%) were included and 172 (32.4%) were
identified as SA patients according to the ERS/ATS 2014 modified criteria. Of these 172
patients, 69 (40.1%) were ineligible for any of the biologicals approved for asthma (omalizu-
mab, mepolizumab, reslizumab and benralizumab), 60 (34.9%) patients were eligible for one
of the biological therapies, and 10 (5.8%) patients were eligible for all biological therapies.
Conclusions: More than half of patients with SA were eligible for biologic therapy in our
study, but none of them received this form of treatment. Almost half of them were not eli-
gible to any of the approved biologics, however. The variability and overlap in patients’ eli-
gibility highlight the importance of evaluating each patient individually for a more
personalized treatment approach. While there is a need to increase access for some of those
eligible that may really need a biologic treatment, continuous efforts are required to
develop alternatives to those who are not eligible.
Description
Palavras-chave
Biological therapy, biomarkers, personalized medicine, anti IgE, IL5, IL5 receptor
Citação
Marques Mello L, Viana KP, Moraes Dos Santos F, Saturnino LTM, Kormann ML, Lazaridis E, Torreão CD, Soares CR, Abreu GA, Lima VB, Pinheiro GP, Lima-Matos A, Ponte EV, Mohan D, Riley JH, Cruz AA. Severe asthma and eligibility for biologics in a Brazilian cohort. J Asthma. 2021 Jul;58(7):958-966. doi: 10.1080/02770903.2020.1748049.