Dupilumab Induces Long-term On-Treatment Clinical Remission in Patients With Type 2 Asthma

Background: Remission is proposed as a multicomponent outcome for patients with severe asthma.

Objective: This post hoc analysis of QUEST (NCT02414854) and TRAVERSE (NCT02134028) evaluated whether dupilumab treatment leads to clinical asthma remission (≥12 months with no severe exacerbations, zero oral corticosteroid use, stabilized or improved lung function, patient-reported asthma control <1.5) and assessed its durability in patients with uncontrolled, moderate to severe type 2 asthma (blood eosinophils ≥150 cells/μL or fractional exhaled nitric oxide ≥20 ppb at parent-study baseline) who are not receiving maintenance oral corticosteroids.

Methods: In QUEST, patients (aged ≥12 years) were randomized to dupilumab 200/300 mg or placebo every 2 weeks for 52 weeks. In TRAVERSE, all patients received dupilumab 300 mg every 2 weeks for up to 96 weeks. We assessed the proportion of patients meeting criteria for on-treatment clinical remission up to 48 weeks of TRAVERSE.

Results: At QUEST baseline, 1,040 patients receiving dupilumab and 544 taking placebo had type 2 asthma; of those, 842 (dupilumab/dupilumab) and 437 (placebo/dupilumab) enrolled in TRAVERSE. At QUEST week 52 (year 1), 37.2% of patients receiving dupilumab met clinical remission criteria, compared with 22.2% taking placebo (all P < .001). At week 48 of TRAVERSE (year 2 overall), 42.8% (dupilumab/dupilumab) and 33.4% (placebo/dupilumab) of patients met clinical remission criteria. Overall, 29.5% of patients in the dupilumab/dupilumab group met the criteria at both years 1 and 2.

Conclusions: Dupilumab treatment enabled approximately one third of patients with type 2 asthma to meet the multicomponent end point for on-treatment clinical asthma remission for up to 2 years.