• Andrea Vianello, Francesco Salton, Beatrice Molena, Cristian Turato, Maria Laura Graziani, Fausto Braccioni, Valeria Frassani, Dino Sella, Paolo Pretto, Luciana Paladini, Andi Sukthi, and Marco Confalonieri.
• Respiratory Pathophysiology Unit, Dept. of Cardiological, Thoracic and Vascular Sciences, University of Padova, 35128 Padova, Italy.
• J Clin Med. 2020 Feb 4; 9 (2).

BackgroundThe efficacy and effectiveness of nintedanib as a first-line therapy in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) patients have been demonstrated by clinical trials and real-life studies. Our aim was to examine the safety profile and effectiveness of nintedanib when it is utilized as a second-line treatment in subjects who have discontinued pirfenidone.MethodsThe medical charts of 12 patients who were switched from pirfenidone to nintedanib were examined retrospectively. The drug's safety was defined by the number of adverse events (AEs) that were reported; disease progression was evaluated based on the patient's vital status and changes in forced vital capacity (FVC) at 12-month follow-up.ResultsThe numbers of patients experiencing AEs and of the AEs per patient in our study group didn't significantly differ with respect to a group of 56 individuals who were taking nintedanib as a first-line therapy during the study period (5/12 vs. 22/56; p = 0.9999, and 0.00 (0.00-1.00) vs. 0.00 (0.00-3.00); p = 0.517, respectively). Two out of the 3 patients who had been switched to nintedanib due to a rapid disease progression showed stabilized FVC values.ConclusionsNintedanib was found to have an acceptable safety profile in the majority of the IPF patients switched from pirfenidone. Prospective studies are warranted to determine if the drug can effectively delay disease progression in these patients.

5 keywords...

hide…