MJA
MJA

Targeted therapy for chronic respiratory disease: a new paradigm

Peter G Gibson, Matthew J Peters and Claire E Wainwright
Med J Aust 2017; 206 (3): . || doi: 10.5694/mja16.00731
Published online: 20 February 2017

Summary

  • Targeted therapy has emerged as a highly effective treatment approach for chronic respiratory diseases. Many of these conditions have dismal outcomes; however, targeted therapy shows great results for the subgroup who respond. This represents a new way to approach these conditions and offers great promise as a future treatment direction.
  • In severe eosinophilic asthma, therapy that targets the interleukin-5 pathway with monoclonal antibodies leads to a 50% reduction in asthma exacerbations in previously refractory disease.
  • In cystic fibrosis, lung function improves with therapy that targets specific molecular abnormalities in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator to increase the probability that this chloride channel is open.
  • In lung cancer, specifically adenocarcinoma with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation and overexpression of EGFR tyrosine kinase, therapy that inhibits EGFR tyrosine kinase gives better outcomes than conventional chemotherapy.

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