Pretreatment with omalizumab improves tolerability of immunotherapy in allergic asthma

Although specific immunotherapy is a valuable treatment option for patients with allergic asthma, the potential for systemic allergic reactions has limited its use, especially for patients with symptomatic disease.

Use of omalizumab in patients whose asthma was symptomatic despite use of inhaled corticosteroids was associated with fewer systemic allergic reactions to specific immunotherapy and enabled more patients to achieve the target immunotherapy maintenance dose.

References:

Effect of pretreatment with omalizumab on the tolerability of specific immunotherapy in allergic asthma. Massanari M, Nelson H, Casale T, Busse W, Kianifard F, Geba GP, Zeldin RK. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2010 Feb;125(2):383-9.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20159249
Response to omalizumab after 16 weeks is a predictor of continuing persistent response to omalizumab in asthmatics. Allergy 2011.
Immunotherapy can reduce asthma symptoms and it is possibly as effective as inhaled steroids - Cochrane, 2010.
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