An editorial by Monica Kraft in the August 31 online version of the New England Journal of Medicine voices approval for a recent article in the journal describing a study of lebrikizumab treatment for asthma patients whose disease was not well controlled with inhaled glucocorticoids. Lebrikizumab is a monoclonal antibody to interleukin-13, and the study found an increased effect of the drug in patients who exhibited characteristics of the high-Th2 phenotype, which include an interleukin-13 level over 100 ng/ml.
In her editorial, Kraft declares that she finds it “refreshing to see a trial in which there is acknowledgement that not all patients will respond similarly to an intervention,” and she calls on other researchers to take phenotype into account in their studies of asthma patients. “Although larger studies are needed to verify this observation,” Kraft acknowledges, she recommends that “future trials should strive to include stratification of patients according to the expected phenotype to help us personalize the response to asthma treatment.”
Read the editorial.
