European Lung Foundation
Find out more about current, future and completed projects.
Biologic treatments are expensive with defined criteria for their use, which varies between countries. To ensure that we understand who stands to gain most from biologics, we need to understand in detail how people with severe asthma respond. To further evaluate the response in terms of timelines and the nature of the improvements including narrative of how the benefits evolve, we aim to conduct a retrospective survey of people with severe asthma who have started biologics in routine clinical care.
Project Leaders: Matthew Masoli, Joseph Lanario, Prof Michael Hyland & Rupert Jones
These headlines regarding major challenges in severe asthma may set a core discussion around global barriers for optimal care. In an era of clinical and translational research, the consensual recognition of these hurdles identified by both severe asthma experts and their patients works as a motor for real-world unanswered questions. Therefore, we propose that a consensus statement from SHARP experts works as strategic steer that can guide future projects and research priorities around the most important issues to overcome in severe asthma. We also believe that the implementation of harmonized procedures by severe asthma experts may act as a platform for further solutions towards optimal care. We suggest broad cornerstone metrics for local implementation regarding the barriers identified, that SA centres should aim at in order to achieve high quality care.
Project leaders: Henrique Cabrita Rodrigues, Suzanna Belsac, Cleste Porsbjerg
Main objective: to investigate the real-life impact on the quality of life of living with severe asthma across 11 European countries. The study is collecting longitudinal data to assess changes in Health-related Quality of Life (HRQoL) via the PatientCoach app or online questionnaires during a 12-month period and is comparing this with other outcome measures, such as asthma control and exacerbations, from the SHARP registry data.
Project Leaders: Matthew Masoli, Jacob Sont, Joseph Lanario
This is a programme that aims to provide better understanding of different disease mechanisms of asthma and bring awareness of specific asthma phenotypes by focusing both on very rare asthma cases as well as series of lookalike cases with similar phenotypic features.
Project Leaders: Celeste Porsbjerg
The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence and health impacts of comorbidities and multimorbidity in people with severe asthma. The results should support better recognition of the wider healthcare needs of people with severe asthma and prompt more holistic treatment approaches to severe asthma.
Project Leader: Ramesh Kurukulaaratchy, Saša Rink, Anna Freeman
The aim of this study is to understand the perspectives and expectations of clinicians across Europe regarding the use of long-acting antimuscarinic antagonists (LAMA) for the treatment of severe asthma.
Project Leaders: Alessandro Marcon & Marco Caminati, Italy
The first objective is to provide a baseline description of clinical, functional, inflammatory, and radiographic characteristics in biologic naïve AFS vs. non-AFS severe asthma patients included in Severe asthma Registers across Europe:
- Characterise heterogeneity in basic clinical characteristics
- Explore characteristics of AFS patients in the light of airway damage.
- Report the concomitant antifungal therapy prescribing practices.
The second objective is to analyse response to biological treatment in SA patients according to A. fumigatus sensitisation:
- Describe clinical outcomes
- Compare clinical response in patients with bronchiectasis and/or FEV1 < 80% vs. those without airway damage.
- Explore treatment response
Project leaders: Sabina Skrgat , Gordana Pavlisa, Ana Zaze Bertoncel
The main objective is to characterize response to biologics in terms of pack-years and FEV1/FVC. This will include defining the efficacy profile of these drugs in former/current smokers and supporting the identification of the best treatment for each patient, which is also relevant in respect of sustainability. It will focus on patient centeredness by: changing the potential misperception of clinicians toward persons with tobacco and nicotine dependence; apprehending potential inequalities in terms of biologic prescriptions in this population; and establishing more committed recommendations for patients with SA who smoke.
Project leaders: Bilun Gemicioglu, Jeremy Charriot, Marco Caminati
The Primary objectives:
- Assess, using an unsupervised and descriptive approach, the relationship between aging and the relevant characteristics of adults with severe asthma in Europe.
- Explore key differences in disease phenotypes by age.
The Secondary objectives:
- Analyze the trend of clinical and inflammatory outcomes over the course of biologic treatments by age.
- Explore whether there is any influence of aging when patients are stratified according to the presence of clinical features consistent with COPD.
Patient centeredness: better define the clinical and inflammatory characteristics of the patients affected with severe asthma during the different ages of life.
Project leaders: Stefania Principe, Antonio Moretti, Marco Caminati
The aim of this research is firstly, to describe the burden of obesity among those living with severe asthma and secondly, to assess, determine in real world data, associations between BMI and clinical response to treatment with biologics
Project leaders: Milica Terzic, Alicia Gayle
The project aims to illuminate lung function trajectories in patients with severe asthma on biologics according to their response to biologic treatment after 12 months. It will ask: is the achievement of clinical remission of asthma after one year of biologic treatment associated with a different pattern of lung function decline in the longer term; which domains of remission are associated with differential lung function decline? Cessation of exacerbations, cessation of mOCS, absence of significant asthma symptoms or stabilisation and optimisation of lung function? Or combinations of these criteria?
Project leaders: Marianne Baastrup Soendergaard, Celeste Porsbjerg, Florence Schleich, Louis Renaud
Main objective: to evaluate patients’ perception of COVID-19 vaccination and understand their vaccination status, hesitancy to vaccination, and impact of vaccination on patients’ asthma.
Project Leaders: Apostolos Bossios, Michael Hyland
Main objective: to understand the use of the anti-IL-5 biologic, mepolizumab, in usual clinical practice (as opposed to clinical trials) and assess the benefits for the mepolizumab-using patient population. The results will help determine which patients starting treatment are likely to benefit most from mepolizumab to control their disease.
Project Leaders: Hans Kroes, Elisabeth Bel, Anneke ten Brinke
Main objective: to compare the current availability and the rules and criteria of prescription of biologics in European countries.
Project Leaders: Renaud Louis, Anne-Noelle Frix
This was a cross-sectional retrospective analysis of aggregated data from 11 national severe asthma registries that joined SHARP with established patient databases.
The study aimed to compare characteristics of patients in European severe asthma registries and treatments before starting biologicals
First and last authors: Job J.M.H. van Bragt, Anke-Hilse Maitland-van der Zee
Main objective: to increase understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on people with severe asthma so as to provide clear, informed guidance to patients, physicians, national societies, and healthcare systems to be prepared for possible future waves of COVID-19.
Project Leaders, Katrien Eger, Dora Paroczai
Main objective: to identify discrepancies between patients and physicians regarding patients’ most bothersome symptoms or problems and to assess whether they are well reflected in the current registries.
Project leaders: Namhee Kwon, Vratislav Sedlak, Ben Ainsworth
Main Objectives: Explore characteristics of anti-IL5(R) starters in different SHARP central registries and compare characteristics of patients before start with anti-IL5(R) across different SHARP central registries with the RCTs. In addition the project aimed to explore the potential discrepancies between real-life initiation of anti-IL5(R) versus eligibility for trials in patients with severe asthma from different European countries.
Project Leader: Stefania Principe, Netherland
Main objective: to understand the impact of oral corticosteroid drugs on the health economic aspects of severe asthma management, enable the existing the Italian Budget Impact model for such analysis using Italian registry (SANI) data (already published) to be used in a wider European context.
Projects Leaders: Thomas Paulsson, Arnaud Bourdin, Enrico Heffler