First Outcomes of Anti-IL5 Biological Therapy in Patients with Severe Asthma in Croatia

Abstract

Currently in Croatia, there are 275 severe asthma patients treated with biological therapy. Most of them (201) are receiving anti-IL5 therapy. To assess the outcomes of the most used biological therapy in severe asthma patients in Croatia, we conducted a real-life study, including 41 patients receiving anti-IL5 therapy at Clinical Center for Lung Diseases Jordanovac. Some of the parameters we used to assess the therapy outcomes were: number of annual exacerbations of asthma, disease control measured by ACT scale, FeNO, lung function parameters, and corticosteroid dose reduction. Results: 41 patients were receiving three different anti-IL5 agents – mepolizumab (18), benralizumab (11), and reslizumab (12). All of the three used therapeutics lead to a significant reduction in the number of annual exacerbations of asthma (P<0.05), significant disease control measured by ACT scale, and an increase in FEV1, VC, and PAAK (P<0.05), without statistically significant difference between different therapeutics. Only mepolizumab therapy was associated with a statistically significant decrease in FeNO. Mepolizumab and benralizumab therapy were associated with statistically significant improvement in DLCO. Reslizumab and mepolizumab therapy were associated with the fastest corticosteroid dose reduction (p<0.05), where reslizumab lead to the fastest corticosteroid dose reduction in our patients. Although our data offers some insight into biological therapeutics outcomes, we need a larger group of patients to make more precise conclusions.