Efficacy and safety of omalizumab in children with moderate-to-severe asthma: a meta-analysis

Abstract

Objective

To assess the efficacy and safety of omalizumab in children with moderate-to-severe asthma.

Data sources

We systematically searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane for randomized controlled trials (RCTs ) (inception to January 2020).

Study selections

All RCTs which were conducted in childhood and adolescence with asthma and compared the efficacy or safety of omalizumab were adopted.

Results

Three studies with four publications including 1380 pediatric patients met our criteria. For children with moderate-to-severe asthma, omalizumab decreased asthma exacerbations rate (OR 0.51, 95% CI: 0.44–0.58, p < 0.001) compared with placebo with no evidence of heterogeneity. Omalizumab reduced the rate of asthma exacerbations 0.58) with treatment period ≥30 weeks (p for heterogeneity = 0.03). Omalizumab treated patients had an excellent or good response rate of treatment effectiveness assessed by physicians (2.75, 2.45–3.09) and a bigger reduction in the dosage of inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) at the end of follow-up. For children with severe asthma, omalizumab also reduced the likelihood of asthma exacerbations and increased the odd of treatment effectiveness rated as excellent or good. Patients receiving omalizumab had a lower incidence of severe adverse events (0.36, 0.22–0.57).

Conclusions

These findings suggested that omalizumab had beneficial effects on moderate-to-severe asthma in children. Patients may benefit more from long-term use of omalizumab. In addition, omalizumab reduces the rate of serious adverse events requiring hospitalizations.

Keywords:

• Omalizumab
• children
• moderate-to-severe asthma
• meta-analysis

Acknowledgements

We thank all authors whose publications could be included in our meta-analysis.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Declaration of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant number 81771589], the Key Project of Tianjin Health Care Professionals [Grant number 16KG166] and the Program of Tianjin Science and Technology Plan [Grant number 18ZXDBSY00170].