Facilitated subcutaneous immunoglobulin administration (fSCIg): a new treatment option for patients with secondary immune deficiencies

ABSTRACT

The number of patients with secondary immune deficiencies (SID) is on the rise, mostly since the arrival on the market of novel targeted therapies that have increased the survival rates of patients with hematological malignancies. The recent changes in the SID landscape have brought with them new and diverse medical needs that treatments for SID management should strive to meet. In this special report, we study the opportunities provided by facilitated subcutaneous immunoglobulin administration (fSCIg) to treat patients for whom the conventional routes (intravenous and subcutaneous) are sub-optimal. Experts in the treatment of SID describe real-life cases from their daily practice, in which fSCIg has led to reducing the burden of treatment and increasing the treatment satisfaction.

KEYWORDS:

• Secondary immune deficiencies
• immunoglobulin replacement
• IVIG
• SCIG
• fSCIG
• hyaluronidase
• individualized therapy

Declaration of interests

Dr Petermann and Dr Nikolov are employees of Baxalta. Dr Blau, Dr Conlon and Dr Plesner have received personal fees from Baxalta, in the context of an Advisory Board Meeting. Medical writing and editorial support for this paper was provided by Dr Nathalie Preiswerk and Dr Randall Watson from Medicalwriters.com (Zurich, Switzerland), and funded by Baxalta. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.