What is this summary about?This is a plain language summary of an article originally published in The Lancet, presenting results of the SHAMAL study.SHAMAL was the first study to investigate whether it is safe to lower the dose of inhaled corticosteroids, a type of medication used to control asthma, in people with severe eosinophilic asthma controlled with benralizumab (another type of medication that helps to control their asthma symptoms).High-dose inhaled corticosteroids increases the risk of several steroid-related side effects; therefore, asthma treatment guidelines recommend a reduction in inhaled corticosteroids doses in people who respond well to biologic medications such as benralizumab. However, there is currently no evidence to support how safe this is or what the best method is for doing this safely.What were the main results of the SHAMAL study?The group of patients who were chosen to reduce their inhaled corticosteroids/long-acting β2-agonist (LABA) dose were called the ‘reduction arm’: by Week 32, 9 out of every 10 participants in the reduction arm (92%) reduced their daily dose of inhaled corticosteroids/LABA without experiencing any worsening of asthma symptoms. Nearly all participants (96%) continued their Week 32 inhaled corticosteroids/LABA dose for another 16 weeks (until Week 48).Up to Week 32, 9 out of every 10 reduction arm participants (91%) did not experience an asthma flare-up/attack (exacerbation). Over the whole study there was no difference in the rate of exacerbations between the participants who reduced the dose of their inhaled corticosteroids/LABA and those who did not.What do the results of the SHAMAL study mean?The SHAMAL study showed that benralizumab treatment can enable people with severe eosinophilic asthma to reduce the amount of inhaled corticosteroids/LABA they receive per day, whilst controlling asthma symptoms.[Box: see text].