Chronic spontaneous urticaria treated with omalizumab: report of two cases

Abstract

Background: Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) is a relatively common skin disease whose etiopathogenesis, as well as other factors influencing disease manifestations, are not fully understood. Mast cell function is recognised as having a central role in CSU signs and symptoms.

Therapeutic options are limited; a number of drugs, recommended by international guidelines for the management of urticaria, lack regulatory approval for CSU and are prescribed off label.

Omalizumab, a recombinant humanized anti IgE antibody, has recently received the approval for CSU treatment in Europe after an appropriate clinical development.

Patients and results: Two case reports, that describes our encouraging experience with this therapeutic option in a real-life setting are discussed and deeply investigate the different scenario for the omalizumab use.

Conclusion: In both cases, a complete remission of CSU symptoms after omalizumab treatment are demonstrated. Moreover, 6 months therapy gave the better results, whit a relapse, in one subject, 1 month after discontinuing omalizumab. Accordingly, a better understanding of long-term safety and efficacy should be needed to allow long-term administration in responding patients through a changing in prescription rules.

Keywords:

• Omalizumab
• chronic spontaneous urticaria
• IgE blocker

Acknowledgment

Medical writing assistance of this paper was provided by Laura Brogelli, on behalf of Content Ed Net; this assistance was funded by Novartis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

This supplement was funded by Novartis.

Additional information

Funding

This supplement was funded by Novartis.