What's on archive 2008

Presented by Professor Chris Corrigan, Dr Catherine Hawrylowicz and Dr Paul Lavender from Asthma Allergy & Lung Biology, King’s College London. 

 

About 90% of the six million asthmatics in the UK have the potential to be well controlled on existing medications (inhaled steroid and other drugs), which are relatively cheap and safe.  The remaining 10% don’t improve no matter what they take, suffer miserable lives as a result, and use up over 70% of the estimated £2.3 billion annual NHS and societal costs of asthma.  Before we understand why steroids sometimes fail in asthma we must first understand why they usually succeed: the effects of steroids on cells are subtle, dynamic and complex. We will be presenting ground breaking new approaches to this challenge and some suggestions as to how, based on our knowledge of the immunology of asthma, steroid effectiveness can be improved.