Clinical Issues in Severe Asthma: Debates and Discussions About Personalizing Patient Management

An outsized proportion of asthma-related morbidity and mortality is borne by the 5% to 15% of affected patients who have severe forms of the disease. These patients experience poorly controlled symptoms and frequent exacerbations despite daily treatment with high-dose inhaled corticosteroids and other long-acting controller medications. Ongoing research has elucidated key pathophysiologic processes and other clinical parameters related to asthma severity and persistence. In many cases, the patient's medical history, clinical presentation, and results from biomarker testing can help classify severe asthma phenotypically. Increasingly, this approach can allow health-care providers to personalize maintenance regimens using targeted therapies for the identified endotypes; that is, asthma phenotypes linked to specific underlying disease mechanisms and proinflammatory signaling cascades. Several biologic medications are now available to treat certain cohorts with severe asthma, and a number of other targeted agents are in late-stage development. Pulmonologists and asthma specialists who manage patients with severe asthma need to stay current on the latest published trial data for newer targeted therapies, approvals from the US Food and Drug Administration, and actionable best-practice recommendations on evaluating and treating patients with severe asthma. During this web-based Clinical Issues program (available online at https://courses.elseviercme.com/asthma18/761e), a panel of expert faculty discuss a series of topics related to the pathophysiology and heterogeneity of severe asthma, including the following: characterizing severe asthma phenotypes and endotypes; identification of patients with severe asthma; and the role of biomarkers in asthma phenotyping. The faculty also highlight the identification and management of comorbid conditions commonly associated with asthma. An overview of new and emerging biologic therapies for severe asthma is provided, followed by a detailed discussion on personalizing treatment for patients with severe asthma.