Short-term evaluation of dupilumab effects in patients with severe asthma and nasal polyposis

Abstract

Background: Having been approved for biological treatment of atopic dermatitis, dupilu-mab has also been recently licensed as add-on therapy for severe asthma and nasal polyposis. With regard to the latter diseases, few real-life clinical investigations have been carried out to date. Objective: The primary end point of this single-center observational study was to evaluate in a real-life setting the short-term therapeutic effects of dupilumab in patients with severe asthma and nasal polyposis. Methods: At baseline and after 4 weeks of add-on therapy with dupilumab, several clinical and functional parameters were assessed in 20 patients with severe asthma and nasal polyposis, including both allergic and nonallergic subjects. Results: After 4 weeks of treatment with dupilumab, all patients experienced remarkable improvement in both severe asthma and nasal polyposis. In particular, asthma-control test and sinonasal outcome test 22 scores had significantly increased (p<0.0001) and decreased (p<0.0001), respectively. Oral corticosteroid intake got to zero within 4 weeks (p<0.0001). Moreover, in week 4, significant increases were detected with regard to both prebronchodi-lator forced expiratory volume in the first second (p<0.01) and forced vital capacity (FVC; p<0.05). At the same time point, dupilumab had significantly reduced residual volume (p<0.0001) and total lung capacity (p<0.001), whereas it had enhanced forced midexpiratory flow of 25%–75% FVC (p<0.01) and peak expiratory flow (p<0.01). After 4 weeks of treatment, dupilumab had also lowered levels of fractional exhaled nitric oxide (p<0.0001). Conclusion: The results of this real-life study suggest that dupilumab can be utilized in both allergic and nonallergic patients with severe asthma and nasal polyposis as a valuable add-on biological therapy with rapid onset of action.