TY - JOUR
T1 - Basophil Activation Test
T2 - Bridging Allergy and Oncology for Diagnostic, Therapeutic and Prognostic Applications in AllergoOncology: An EAACI Position Paper
AU - Pascal, Mariona
AU - Chauhan, Jitesh
AU - Knol, Edward
AU - Bianchini, Rodolfo
AU - Castells, Mariana
AU - De las Vecillas, Leticia
AU - Hartmann, Karin
AU - Izquierdo, Elena
AU - Jappe, Uta
AU - Jimenez-Rodriguez, Teodorikez Wilfox
AU - Levi-Schaffer, Francesca
AU - Mayorga, Cristobalina
AU - Poli, Aurélie
AU - Redegeld, Frank
AU - Santos, Alexandra F.
AU - Jensen-Jarolim, Erika
AU - Bergmann, Christoph
AU - Karagiannis, Sophia N.
AU - Bax, Heather J.
N1 - Funding:
This position paper was supported by the European Academy for
Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) under the EAACI Task
force “Granulocytes (mast cells, basophils, neutrophils eosinophils):
understanding their roles in allergy and tumour immunity” within
the Working group for AllergoOncology within the Basic Immunology
Section (2024). The authors would like to thank EAACI for financial
support in the development of this position paper. S.N.K. has projects
supported by the Medical Research Council (MR/L023091/1, MR/
V049445/1, and MR/R015643/1), the Biotechnology and Biological
Sciences Research Council (BB/T008709/1); Breast Cancer Now (147;
KCL-BCN- Q3); the Cancer Research UK King's Health Partners Centre
at King's College London (C604/A25135); The Guy's and St Thomas's
Foundation Trust Charity (Melanoma Special Fund, 573); Innovate UK
(463087); the British Skin Foundation (006/R/22); Worldwide Cancer
Research (24- 0087); Cancer Research UK (C30122/A11527 and C30122/
A15774). S.N.K. has projects supported by the King's Health Partners
Centre for Translational Medicine. The views expressed are those
of the author(s) and not necessarily those of King's Health Partners.
U.J. has projects funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
(JA 1007/2–3), the Federal Ministry of Education and Science (BMBF)
(D.Z.L. and INDICATE-FH), and the Federal Ministry of Food and
Agriculture (BMEL) (AptaSens). M.P. is employed by Hospital Clínic de
Barcelona, Spain, and has projects funded by Instituto Carlos III (ISCIII)
and co-funded by the European Union (PI19/00710 and PI22/01469)
and RICORS (RD21/0002/0058 and RD24/0007/0010) from ISCIII co-
founded by the European Union. A.P. is financially supported by the
Action Lions Vaincre le Cancer association, by FNRS-Télévie (TLV 2023
RESTAGE) and by Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) CORE
program (C24/BM/18858278). C.M. has a contract Nicolas Monardes
Program (RC0004-2021) and projects PI18/00288 from ISCIII co-
funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) “Una
manera de hacer Europa” “Andalucıa se mueve con Europa”, and
PI21/00346 and RICORS (RD21/0002/0008 and RD24/0007/0024) from
ISCIII co-founded by the European Union. K.H. has projects supported
by the Swiss National Science Foundation (project no. 310030_207705)
and by the EU-H2020-MSCA- COFUND EURIdoc programme (proj-
ect no. 101034170). F.L.S. has projects supported by the Israel Science
Foundation (ISF) Grant no. 343/22 and the Emalie Gutterman Memorial
Endowed Fund (USA)
A.F.S. reports grants from Medical Research Council (MR/M008517/1; MC/
PC/18052; MR/T032081/1), Food Allergy Research and Education
(FARE), the Immune Tolerance Network/National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID, NIH), Asthma UK (AUK-
BC-2015- 01), BBSRC, Rosetrees Trust, and the NIHR through the
Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) award to Guy's and St Thomas'
NHS Foundation Trust, during the conduct of the study; personal
fees from Thermo Scientific, Nestle, Novartis, Allergy Therapeutics,
IgGenix, and Mabylon, as well as research support from Thermo Fisher
Scientific through a collaboration agreement with King's College
London. S.N.K. is the academic founder and shareholder of Epsilogen
Ltd. (formerly IGEM Therapeutics Ltd.) and has received funds from
IGEM Therapeutics Ltd/Epsilogen Ltd. H.J.B. is employed through a
fund provided by Epsilogen Ltd. S.N.K. and H.J.B. are inventors of pat-
ents on antibody technologies. J.C. has been employed through a fund
provided by Epsilogen Ltd. C.B. received honoraria for presentations
from Allergy Therapeutics, Bencard, HAL Allergy, and SCS. E.J.J. de-
clares inventorship in patents on immunoBON, owned by Biomedical
International R + D, Vienna, Austria, of which she is a shareholder.
She received honoraria for presentations from Allergy Therapeutics,
AllergoPharma, Bencard Allergie, Meda, Menarini, Roxall, Santen,
Sanofi, and ThermoFisher. U.J. has received a hotel accommodation
and catering for a lecture and chairing of a workshop organized by
ALK Abello. The honorarium went to her institution, the R.C.B. Her
research on molecular allergology is funded by the Federal Ministry of
Education and Science, the Federal Ministries of Technology, Economy
and Technology, Food and Agriculture (BMEL), the German Research
Foundation, and the Kanert Foundation. F.R. received a Pathways in
Type 2 Inflammation Research Grant from Sanofi/Regeneron; he is
Editor-in- Chief of the European Journal of Pharmacology (Elsevier).
M.P. received honoraria for presentations from ThermoFisher Scientific
and LETI Pharma SLU. KH has received consultancy or lecture fees
from ALK-Abello, Allergopharma, Blueprint, Cogent, KalVista, LEO
Pharma, Menarini, Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi, Takeda, and Thermo Fisher,
travel support from Allergopharma and Blueprint, and research fund-
ing from Thermo Fisher. M.C. declares Telios: TL-895 Trial PI BWH,
AAAAI Foundation Research Chair, Editor in Chief of Current Allergy
and Asthma Reports, UpToDate: Author, NIH: Allergy Data and Safety
Monitoring Board (DSMB), BluePrint: BLU-285 and BLU-263 Studies
PI BWH, Consultant for Daiichi Sankyo, and Cogent Biosciences:
SUMMIT Trials. EFK received honoraria for presentations for Thermo
Fisher Scientific, Glaxo Smith Kline, Astra Zeneca, and Sanofi.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Author(s). Allergy published by European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2025/6/12
Y1 - 2025/6/12
N2 - The basophil activation test (BAT) is gaining increasing relevance as an ex vivo functional assay in allergy to evaluate IgE-mediated hypersensitivity reactions to food allergens, venoms, and drugs and to monitor tolerance induction. Establishing universal standard operating protocols has been difficult, due to several challenges including variable activation markers, positive control selection, the need for processing fresh blood samples, and the existence of non-releasing individuals. In oncology, BAT is also an emerging promising diagnostic and management tool to assess hypersensitivity reactions to biologics and chemotherapy agents, monitor drug tolerance in desensitisation, and predict and address the safety of novel anti-cancer IgE-based therapeutics. This position paper highlights the emerging significance of BAT in AllergoOncology, in facilitating therapy monitoring, biomarker discovery, and risk stratification. Capitalising on long-acquired expertise in the development of BAT for allergy, we propose research directions and routes to clinical applications of this highly promising tool in AllergoOncology. We advocate the need for enhanced focus on addressing standardisation challenges and leveraging outputs for precision medicine. By linking allergy and oncology, the key remaining limitations can be addressed, with the aim of realising the significant promise of BAT as a robust tool to enhance personalised care in allergy and AllergoOncology.
AB - The basophil activation test (BAT) is gaining increasing relevance as an ex vivo functional assay in allergy to evaluate IgE-mediated hypersensitivity reactions to food allergens, venoms, and drugs and to monitor tolerance induction. Establishing universal standard operating protocols has been difficult, due to several challenges including variable activation markers, positive control selection, the need for processing fresh blood samples, and the existence of non-releasing individuals. In oncology, BAT is also an emerging promising diagnostic and management tool to assess hypersensitivity reactions to biologics and chemotherapy agents, monitor drug tolerance in desensitisation, and predict and address the safety of novel anti-cancer IgE-based therapeutics. This position paper highlights the emerging significance of BAT in AllergoOncology, in facilitating therapy monitoring, biomarker discovery, and risk stratification. Capitalising on long-acquired expertise in the development of BAT for allergy, we propose research directions and routes to clinical applications of this highly promising tool in AllergoOncology. We advocate the need for enhanced focus on addressing standardisation challenges and leveraging outputs for precision medicine. By linking allergy and oncology, the key remaining limitations can be addressed, with the aim of realising the significant promise of BAT as a robust tool to enhance personalised care in allergy and AllergoOncology.
KW - AllergoOncology
KW - allergy
KW - basophil activation test (BAT)
KW - cancer immunotherapy
KW - hypersensitivity reactions
KW - precision medicine
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105007999258&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40503572/
U2 - 10.1111/all.16607
DO - 10.1111/all.16607
M3 - Article
C2 - 40503572
AN - SCOPUS:105007999258
SN - 0105-4538
JO - Allergy: European Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
JF - Allergy: European Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
ER -