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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Primary Immunodeficiencies
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1528414

Patient-reported outcomes with subcutaneous immunoglobulin in secondary immunodeficiency

Provisionally accepted
Juthaporn Cowan Juthaporn Cowan 1,2,3*Il-Kang Na Il-Kang Na 4,5,6,7André Gladiator André Gladiator 8Marta Kamieniak Marta Kamieniak 9Shahzad Mustafa Shahzad Mustafa 10,11
  • 1 Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
  • 2 Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, and Centre for Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
  • 3 Inflammation and Chronic Disease Program, The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
  • 4 Dept of Hematology, Oncology and Tumor Immunology, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt‐ Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany
  • 5 Experimental and Clinical Research Center, Berlin, Germany
  • 6 Berlin Institute of Health at Charité, Universitätsmedizin Berlin, BIH Center for Regenerative Therapies (BCRT), Berlin, Germany
  • 7 German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research, (DKTK), Partner site Berlin, Charité, Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany
  • 8 Takeda Pharmaceuticals International AG, Zurich, Switzerland
  • 9 Takeda Development Center Americas, Inc., Cambridge, MA, United States
  • 10 Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Rheumatology, Rochester Regional Health, Rochester, New York, New York, United States
  • 11 Department of Medicine, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Subcutaneous (SCIG) and intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) replacement are both used to prevent infections in patients with secondary immunodeficiency (SID). Compared with IVIG, SCIG has fewer systemic side effects and, additionally, facilitates home-based treatment. Shared decision-making practice should include discussion of aspects such as patient preference as well as the associated risks and benefits of treatment. We review the available evidence for the use of SCIG treatment in patients with SID, focusing on patient-reported outcomes (PROs). In most studies, there were improvements to health-related quality of life with SCIG treatment, compared with before initiating SCIG without prior IVIG treatment, or after switching to SCIG from IVIG treatment, or a no-SCIG/IVIG cohort. Treatment satisfaction with SCIG was similar between patients with SID and primary immunodeficiency disease. Patient preference and perception assessments highlighted the benefits of SCIG compared with IVIG, such as ease of use and administration, convenience, and time-effectiveness. In addition, many patients self-administered SCIG at home. Such aspects may be of specific benefit to patients with SID and hematological malignancy by reducing the risk of infection exposure in clinical settings. PRO data may be useful during shared decision-making discussions with patients with SID.

    Keywords: secondary immunodeficiency, hematological malignancy, Subcutaneous immunoglobulin, patient-reported outcomes, health-related quality of life, Treatment satisfaction, Patient Preference, shared decision-making

    Received: 14 Nov 2024; Accepted: 06 Feb 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Cowan, Na, Gladiator, Kamieniak and Mustafa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Juthaporn Cowan, Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.