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.
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.