Dr. Jorge Maspero: Dupilumab and Patients with Severe Chronic Rhinosinusitis with Nasal Polyps

New data on the monoclonal antibody dupilumab was presented at the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) Annual Meeting. Research on dupilumab (Dupixent) showed improvements in the severity of loss-of-taste in patients with severe chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps.

The study was comprised the SINUS-24 and SINUS-52 trials. The former lasted 24 weeks and the latter over a year.

In each trial, participants were divided between a dupilumab group and a placebo group. The study was also notable for being the first to incorporate patient-reported data on taste, according to the investigators.

The results at week 24 were generally the same for all patients. The study population received the same medication and had matched in severity and improvements.

The researchers stopped treatment with dupilumab at week 24 in the SINUS-24 trial, while continuing dupilumab treatment for a total of 52 weeks it in the SINUS-52 trial.

Dr. Jorge Maspero, clinical research director for allergy and respiratory medicine at Fundacion Cidea, spoke with HCPLive in an interview about the trials.

“The finding was that if we stopped at week 24 the polyps relapsed,” Maspero said. “The same might happen after 52 weeks, but what this pointed out was the need to continue the treatment to preclude the relapse of the disease.”

Maspero added that in most trials dupilumab improved pulmonary function, as well as upper airway outcomes, exacerbation, and asthma control. However, further research was recommended.

“We do not have a clear-cut explanation about the mechanism, but obviously Dupixent works blocking IL-4 and IL-13 pathways, which have a number of pro-inflammatory actions,” Maspero said.

He added that continued research is dependent on access to grants and alluded to further research incorporating new areas of study involving trials based on specific flavors.