Safety and efficacy of omalizumab for the treatment of allergic rhinitis:Meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials

Abstract

Objective:To assess the efficacy and safety of omalizumab in patients with allergic rhinitis(AR) in a meta-analysis of clinical trial results, and provide evidence for the clinical treatment of AR.Method:Pubmed, Medline, Cochrane and Embase were searched through August 2014 using the terms 'allergic rhinitis, omalizumab, efficacy, safety, and randomized controlled trial(RCT)'without language restriction. Relevant reviews, publications, and abstracts of meetings were also retrieved. RevMan5.3 software was used for meta-analysis after data extraction. Result: Nine RCTs were included(n =1764).Of the 1764 participants,859 patients were treated by omalizumab and the other 905 received a placebo.The meta-analysis revealed that patients treated with omalizumab had significantly reduced total and individual symptoms scorescompared with the placebo group(P <0.05). And there was no significantly differences in adverse events between placebo and omalizumab(P <0.05).The WMD rate and 95%CI were as follows：total nasal symptom scores(0.04, - 0.10 to 0.19), rhinorrhea(-0.32, -0.44 to -0.21), nasal stuffiness(-0.33,-0.38 to -0.27), nasal itching (-0.08,-0.25 to 0.09), and sneezing(-0.24, -0.27 to -0.21), and non-nasal symptoms scores(0.30,0.04 to 0.55).Conclusion:Compared to the placebo,omalizumab can effectively and safely reduce symptoms scores of patients with AR.