Cancer drug shows early promise for severe asthma

Imatinib, typically used to treat chronic myeloid leukaemia, has been shown to reduce airway hyper-responsiveness in patients with poorly controlled severe asthma. The proof-of-principle study, published in NEJM and presented at the American Thoracic Society conference in Washington this week, also found imatinib reduced mast cell counts and a marker of mast cell activation. While ...