If this is not your name, click here.
| | If this is not your name, click here. | | |
| | Contact Us | Order Now | Journals | Bookstore | Register a colleague | | |
| |  Comparable Clinical, Immunological Response Seen in Younger Children Treated With Grass Allergy Immunotherapy Tablet: Presented at EAACI By Judith Moser, MD WARSAW, Poland -- June 11, 2009 -- Children aged younger and older than 10 years show comparable clinical and immunological response as well as tolerability when treated with the grass allergy immunotherapy tablet (AIT), according to a study presented here at the 28th Congress of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI). The grass AIT was shown to be efficacious and well tolerated by children aged 5 to 16 years with grass allergy. "We performed a post hoc analysis with the aim of finding out whether children aged 5 to 10 years benefit just as much as older children," said Peter Eberle, MD, a children's pulmonologist in Kassel, Germany, who presented the study at a poster session on June 9. According to Dr. Eberle, there used to be a common prejudice that younger children are not amenable to immunotherapy due to a lack of data. The analysis was performed on data collected from a paediatric phase 3 trial of 253 children aged 5 to 16 years. Participants were randomised 1:1 to receive either active therapy or placebo prior to and throughout the grass pollen season of 2007. Researchers divided the children into 2 age groups; children aged 5 to 10 years (n = 140) and children aged 11 to 16 years (n = 113) to draw comparisons in terms of rhinoconjunctivitis symptom score, adverse events, and immunological response. "We could show that the efficacy and tolerability of treatment was equal in both age groups," Dr. Eberle said. The effect of the grass AIT relative to placebo assessed by means of the rhinoconjunctivitis symptom score in the pollen season was nominally higher in the younger age group (26% vs 19%). However, the impact of age on the treatment effect was not statistically significant (P = .6). The treatment with the grass AIT was well tolerated in both age groups, with a similar number of treatment-related adverse events and a similar severity of the events reported in the active groups. In order to evaluate the immunological response to treatment, the researchers assessed serum immunoglobulin E and immunoglobulin G4. "We saw that these parameters showed identical changes in both age groups when treated with grass AIT for 7 months," said Dr. Eberle. The findings demonstrate that treatment can be initiated as soon as it appears clinically relevant for children aged 5 to 16 years. "This study is an important signal for us paediatricians to start the treatment early and not to wait for the immune situation to worsen and for new symptoms such as asthma to appear," Dr. Eberle summarised. "We should strive to slow down the natural course of the rhinoconjunctivitis." Funding for this study was provided by Alk Abelló. [Presentation title: Treatment With the ALK Grass Allergy Immunotherapy Tablet in Children Above and Below the Age of 10 - Efficacy, Safety and Immunological Response. Abstract 1227]
|
