Analysis of response of severe eosinophilic asthmatic patients to benralizumab

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Clinical trials and real-life studies have been published showing effectiveness of benralizumab in severe eosinophilic asthmatic patients. The aim of the present study is to describe super-responders to benralizumab in a series of 79 patients who completed at least 1 year of treatment, and to compare super-responders with non super-responders. METHODS: This is a multicenter study of the Register of Severe Asthma of the Region of Murcia (RE-ASGRAMUR) Group performed in eight hospitals under the conditions of routine clinical practice. Patients with zero exacerbations and no oral corticosteroid therapy for asthma were considered super-responders. We analyzed clinical, functional, and inflammatory parameters of selected patients. RESULTS: In all, 50 of the 79 patients (63%) met the super-responder criteria. In addition, 36% of the patients (26/71) were considered as complete responders to treatment (super--responder + Asthma Control Test [ACT] ≥ 20 + forced expiratory volume in 1 s [FEV1] ≥ 80%). The super--responders were significantly older in age (P = 0.0029), had higher eosinophils count (P = 0.0423), higher proportion of nasal polyps (P = 0.036), and they had less severe disease at baseline. After 1 year of treatment, the super-responders had higher levels of ACT questionnaire (23 vs 19, P = 0.0007) and better percentage of FEV1 (83 vs 75, P = 0.0359). CONCLUSION: Almost two of the three patients treated with benralizumab were super--responders after 1 year of treatment and 36% had a complete response. Super-responders were associated with older age, higher eosinophils count, had nasal polyposis as comorbidity, and had less severe disease at baseline. This data illustrated the good real-life response of patients with severe eosinophilic asthma to the treatment with benralizumab.