• Danilo Di Bona, Irene Fiorino, Marialuisa Taurino, Flavia Frisenda, Elena Minenna, Carlo Pasculli, Georgios Kourtis, Anna Simona Rucco, Andrea Nico, Marcello Albanesi, Lucia Giliberti, Luciana D'Elia, Maria Filomena Caiaffa, and Luigi Macchia.
• School and Chair of Allergology and Clinical Immunology, Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy. Electronic address: danilo.dibona@uniba.it.
• Respir Med. 2017 Sep 1; 130: 55-60.

BackgroundRandomized Controlled Trials showed that omalizumab exhibited a good safety and tolerability profile in patients with moderate-to-severe asthma. However, safety data of long-term treatment with omalizumab are scarce. Our aim was to assess the safety of omalizumab in patients under long-term treatment in a real-life setting.MethodsDifficult-to-control asthmatic patients treated with omalizumab up to 9 years were retrospectively evaluated. Mild to severe adverse events any and reasons for discontinuation were recorded.ResultsNinety-one patients (26.4% males, mean age 49.9 ± 14.9 years) were included: mean treatment length, 3.8 ± 2.6 years; mean individual monthly dose, 514.5 ± 345.7 mg (range, 150-1200 mg). A total of 10,472 single injections were given cumulatively to the 91 patients (115 single injections per patients, on average, over a treatment period up to 9 years). Fifty-nine patients (64.8%) were treated for a period of time from 3 to 9 years, 14 of whom from 6 to 9 years. A high proportion of patients who discontinued treatment dropped out within the first year (18, 39.1%), mainly for reasons unrelated to treatment. Six patients (6.6%) discontinued omalizumab for treatment-related adverse events: arthralgia/myalgia (3 patients); urticaria, angioedema (1 patients); metrorrhagia (1 patient); relapsing herpes labialis (1 patient). Four other patients complained of mild adverse events (rhinitis/conjunctivitis, injection site reaction, fatigue, thrombosis) but continued the treatment. Anaphylaxis was not reported.ConclusionsLong-term treatment with omalizumab appears remarkably safe and well tolerated in real-life setting. Prolonged omalizumab treatment for many consecutive years did not increase the risk of side effects, particularly anaphylaxis.Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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