Real-world effectiveness of reslizumab for severe eosinophilic asthma (SEA)

Introduction: Reslizumab, a humanised monoclonal antibody against interleukin-5, has been demonstrated in clinical trials to be an effective add-on treatment for adult patients with SEA (Castro M et al. Lancet Respir Med 2015;3:355–66). To date, there is limited published data on the real-world effectiveness of this treatment. Aims: To assess the effectiveness of reslizumab in routine clinical practice. Methods: A retrospective analysis of adult patients (≥18 years) with SEA treated with reslizumab at Tallaght University Hospital from May 2017 was undertaken. Key parameters, including blood eosinophil count (BEC), annual clinical asthma exacerbations (CAE) and those requiring emergency care (CAE+EC), ACQ-7, AQLQ and oral corticosteroid (OCS) dose, were assessed at baseline and after 12 months of therapy. Results: 17 patients (mean age 54.1 years; 52.9% female; 29.4% former smokers [rest non-smokers]; mean weight 86.8 [61.3-123.4] kg) were included. Mean disease duration was 27.4 years and 41.2% had previously received biologic therapy. Mean predicted FEV1 at baseline was 75.3%. At 12 months of therapy, reslizumab was associated with significant improvements in all measures: Conclusions: These results support the effectiveness of reslizumab for treatment of SEA in a real-world setting, with similar benefit to that seen in clinical trials.