METREX enrolled patients regardless of BEC, METREO required a screening BEC of \u2265 150 cells\/\u00b5L (or \u2265300 cells\/\u00b5L in the prior year), and MATINEE required a screening BEC of \u2265 300 cells\/\u00b5L (and \u2265 150 cells\/\u00b5L in the prior year).\u00b9 SCS doses were converted to prednisolone equivalents and stratified as low (< 20 mg\/day) or high (\u2265 20 mg\/day).\u00b9<\/p>\n
Of 2089 patients enrolled (1043 mepolizumab, 1046 placebo), 1713 had a BEC of \u2265 150 cells\/\u00b5L and 1144 had a BEC of \u2265300 cells\/\u00b5L.\u00b9 In the \u2265 150 cells\/\u00b5L group, mean total SCS exposure was 434.64 mg\/year with mepolizumab vs 609.95 mg\/year with placebo (mean difference, 178.97 mg\/year; 95% CI, 62.09\u2013292.19).\u00b9 In the \u2265300 cells\/\u00b5L group, mean exposure was 354.28 mg\/year vs 551.52 mg\/year, respectively (mean difference, 193.58 mg\/year; 95% CI, 84.01\u2013306.80).\u00b9<\/p>\n
Mepolizumab and High-Dose Systemic Corticosteroid Courses in COPDKey TakeawaysMepolizumab reduced mean total yearly SCS exposure vs placebo in patients with COPD and type 2 inflammation receiving inhaled triple therapy (434.64 vs. 609.95 mg\/year at BEC \u2265150 cells\/\u00b5L).The reduction was driven by high-dose courses, with low-dose SCS days similar between arms.Benefit was observed at both the \u2265150 cells\/\u00b5L and \u2265300 cells\/\u00b5L BEC thresholds across 2089 pooled patients.<\/p>\n
Among patients with a BEC of \u2265 150 cells\/\u00b5L, 57% received SCS for any cause, as did 55% of those with a BEC of \u2265 300 cells\/\u00b5L.\u00b9 The mean percentage of days not receiving SCS was 89.8% with mepolizumab vs 88.3% with placebo in the \u2265150 cells\/\u00b5L group and 90.8% vs 88.9% in the \u2265300 cells\/\u00b5L group.\u00b9<\/p>\n
The between-group difference centered on high-dose courses. In the \u2265 150 cells\/\u00b5L group, the mean percentage of days on high-dose SCS was 4.5% with mepolizumab vs 5.9% with placebo, and low-dose days were identical at 5.7% in both arms.\u00b9 In the \u2265300 cells\/\u00b5L group, high-dose days were 3.8% vs 5.1%, and low-dose days were 5.4% vs 6.1%.\u00b9<\/p>\n
Investigators concluded mepolizumab reduced total yearly SCS exposure compared with placebo regardless of whether patients met the \u2265150 cells\/\u00b5L or \u2265300 cells\/\u00b5L screening threshold.<\/p>\n
Full results will be presented in the Precision COPD: Type 2 Inflammation, Biomarkers, and Targeted Therapy rapid fire original investigation session at CHEST 2026 on Tuesday, October 20, from 1:45 pm to 2:30 pm MST.\u00b2<\/p>\n
References<\/p>\n
Hanania NA, Kraft M, Burrows E, et al. Mepolizumab reduces systemic corticosteroid utilization in COPD with type 2 inflammation: pooled results from phase 3 randomized trials. CHEST. 2026;170(4S). doi:10.1016\/j.chest.2026.07.3950<\/a>Mepolizumab reduces systemic corticosteroid exposure in patients with COPD and type 2 inflammation. American College of Chest Physicians. Published October 12, 2026. Accessed October 18, 2026. https:\/\/www.chestnet.org\/-\/media\/documents\/news\/03-mepolizumab-reduces-systemic-corticosteroid-exposure-in-patients-with-copd-and-type-2-inflammation.ashx<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"METREX enrolled patients regardless of BEC, METREO required a screening BEC of \u2265 150 cells\/\u00b5L (or \u2265300 cells\/\u00b5L…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":938061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,84],"class_list":["post-938060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=938060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/938061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}