Effects of omalizumab in Aspergillus-associated airway disease

Abstract

The clinical spectrum of Aspergillus-associated airway diseases (AAAD) includes Aspergillus-induced asthma, allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) and bronchocentric granulomatosis. Corticosteroids are almost always used to suppress the immunological response to the fungal antigens.1 Although there are no evidence-based alternative treatment options besides steroids, the well-known adverse effects of these drugs have prompted clinicians to look beyond this standard practice and several cases of ABPA patients with very positive outcomes after omalizumab therapy have been recently published.2–6 We recruited 18 patients (13 women; mean age 49±17 years) with AAAD (2 of them had been previously diagnosed with cystic fibrosis) from 11 Spanish hospitals. All of them had been treated …