Immunomodulatory Approaches to Treating Chronic Rhinosinusitis Gain Importance

“Leukotriene inhibitors for chronic rhinosinusitis tend to show improvement in use, although the [studies] really are mostly lacking in proper design and significant numbers to be powered to prove significance,” Dr. Holbrook said.

An anti-IgE antibody, omalizumab, inhibits binding of IgE to the receptor on mast cells and basophils. “There are few good studies, and the subject numbers were all pretty small,” Dr. Holbrook said. “So, there are mixed results.”

He emphasized the need for subtyping the disease. “For now, we’re kind of throwing things at them when we’ve used up and exhausted all our conventional therapies,” he said. “Hopefully, we can narrow that [selection criteria] down in the future.”