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HealthDay News — For patients with severe eosinophilic asthma controlled on benralizumab, tapering of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) is feasible and is not associated with worse asthma control, according to a study published online December 7 in The Lancet.
David J. Jackson, MPH, from King’s College London, and colleagues conducted a phase 4 study involving adults with severe eosinophilic asthma and a 5-item Asthma Control Questionnaire score less than 1.5 and who received at least 3 consecutive doses of benralizumab before screening. Participants were randomly assigned to taper their high-dose ICS to a medium-dose, low-dose, and as-needed dose (reduction group) or to continue therapy for 32 weeks, followed by 16 weeks of maintenance.
Overall, 168 patients were assigned to the reduction and reference arms (125 and 43, respectively). Ninety-two percent of the 110 patients reduced their ICS-formoterol dose: 15, 17, and 61% to medium-dose, low-dose, and as-needed only, respectively. The researchers found that in 96% of the patients, the reductions were maintained to week 48; in the tapering group, 91% had zero exacerbations during tapering. The rates of adverse events were similar between the groups: 73 and 83% in the reduction and reference groups, respectively. A total of 17 patients had serious adverse events: 10 and 12% in the reduction and reference groups, respectively. There were no deaths reported.
“Our key finding is that 92% of patients were able to successfully reduce their high-dose ICS, with more than 60% reducing to anti-inflammatory reliever only without a change in asthma control,” the authors write.
Several authors disclosed ties to pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca, which manufactures benralizumab and funded the study.
