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Omalizumab is frequently used as add-on treatment to inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) and long-acting β2-agonists in patients with suboptimal control of severe asthma. Patients with severe asthma will typically require chronic treatment, although due to the limited amount of data available there are still some concerns about the safety and efficacy of long-term therapy with omalizumab. Herein, in an extension of a previous 4-year study, we report disease-related outcomes of 8 patients with severe persistent allergic asthma who have been followed for a total of 9 years in a real-life setting. Both quality of life (QoL) (evaluated using the Juniper Asthma-Related QoL Questionnaire AQLQ) and forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) showed sustained improvement at 9 years. The median values of AQLQ and FEV1 at 4 years were 5.5 and 82.0% compared to 5.9 and 85.5%, respectively, at 9 years, which were all significantly increased from baseline. After 9 years, the mean annual number of severe exacerbations was 0.63 compared to 5 at baseline. There also appeared to be a trend toward use of a lower dose of ICS at longer follow-up times. After 9 years, there were no safety concerns for continued use of omalizumab, and no asthma-related hospitalizations or emergency department visits were documented over the last 5 years. The present analysis is the longest reported clinical follow-up of omalizumab. Long-term maintenance treatment with omalizumab for up to 9 years is associated with continued benefits in reducing symptoms, exacerbations, and medication burden without any safety concerns.
Menzella et al. (Sun,) studied this question.