I hadn’t heard about this article until just now so thought I’d share it. My doctor did not recommend that I try this treatment as he felt that the variety of IPF I had wouldn’t be helped by it, but I know of a lot of people who were really happy with the results they had on it. So I am kind of surprised at this report. At least there seems to be hope that it will help people with mild to moderate symptoms.

Interferon a No-Go for Pulmonary Fibrosis

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 7 (HealthDayNews) — A once hopeful treatment for pulmonary fibrosis, a fatal disease of the lungs, appears to have little or no effect on progression of the disease or on quality of life, a new study has found.

There remains some optimism, however, that the treatment, interferon gamma-1b, might benefit patients with mild to moderate symptoms of the disease. The authors of the study, which appears in the Jan. 8 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, are launching a new trial to test this hypothesis.

The median survival time for patients diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis is only two to three years. The disease results in a scarring of the lungs that eventually prevents the lungs from fulfilling their primary mission of delivering oxygen to the body. The only effective treatment is lung transplantation, although many people are treated with anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive drugs, both of which have side effects… [www.medicinenet.com]

As for me, I’m just waiting for a lung to come up for me on the transplant list and wondering why this article just popped into my aggregator now if the article is from January.

This one actually didn’t seem too surprising to me, but it is cool that they were able to find the connection.

New Light Shed on Deadly Lung Disease

TUESDAY, Aug. 3 (HealthDayNews) — New research holds out hope for people suffering from pulmonary fibrosis, a deadly lung disease, by discovering that cells that travel to the organ to repair damage end up doing more harm than good.

The study found these biological repairmen, which experts had thought originally resided in the lungs, were actually adult stem cells that migrated there from the patient’s bone marrow — and this migration can be halted.

…

“It’s certainly very exciting research, but the information is obviously very preliminary,” said Dr. Alfred Munzer, a lung specialist from Maryland and past president of the American Lung Association. “We have to see what meaning it holds.”

Pulmonary fibrosis is a chronic and often fatal disorder that is characterized by extra scar tissue in the lungs. The disease, which affects some 80,000 individuals in the United States, has traditionally been treated with steroids and other immunosuppressive therapies, but with little effect. About 70 percent of people die within five years of diagnosis. “At the moment, there is no effective treatment for pulmonary disease, and it is not that uncommon a disease,” Munzer said. [medicinenet.com]

What I think about this is that it gives me hope for people who get IPF in the future. I’m already well on my way to getting a new lung, but that honestly isn’t my first choice. And it isn’t something available to all people. In many ways I’m very lucky in that I haven’t gotten worse in well over a year (*knocks on wood*).

One thing that amazes me is how much information is available on medical conditions and how few people ever find it. Hopefully things like this can help with that.

Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis Announces Publication of New Educational Tools for Patients

Preliminary Results From Latest Research Initiative Demonstrate Need for Lung
Transplant and Pulmonary Rehabilitation Education for IPF Patients and
Caregivers

SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 17 /PRNewswire/ — The Coalition for Pulmonary
Fibrosis (CPF) announced today the publication of two new educational
brochures: ‘Lung Transplantation: What Every Patient with Idiopathic
Pulmonary Fibrosis Should Know’ and ‘Oxygen Management and Pulmonary
Rehabilitation for the IPF Patient’.

The two brochures were created for patients, family members and physicians
alike based on preliminary results of the CPF’s Basic Research Questionnaire,
an education initiative launched last year to better understand the impact of
idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) on patients and families, and to help the
foundation grasp the educational needs that arise for those fighting the
disease.

To date, the CPF has received more than 1,400 responses to this
ground-breaking survey, and based on educational gaps identified by patients,
discovered the need for improved education and awareness on two very important
topics for IPF patients; lung transplantation and pulmonary rehabilitation.

Interim results of the CPF’s research questionnaire found that among
current patients, 30 percent responded that their physician has not discussed,
or even mentioned the topic of lung transplantation, a potential treatment
option for IPF patients under 65. Of those patients under the age of 60,
fewer than half (47 percent) said they have been advised to seek a lung
transplant. Additional data from a Duke University study also indicates that
more than 50 percent of those with IPF who are on transplant lists will pass
away before a donor lung becomes available. [via Feedster Search: Pulmonary Fibrosis]

This also makes me very thankful that I found the doctors I did as I went through my diagnosis. I was quickly forwarded to a pulmonary specialist and he was able to give me a preliminary diagnosis almost immediately. Once it was confirmed that I did actually have Pulmonary Fibrosis we sat down and talked about what it all means, what treatments were available, how things tended to progress, what it meant long term, the whole thing. I still find it kind of stunning that other people have not had this same experience.

I’ve started hunting for news items to do with Pulmonary Fibrosis in my news reader, so will be making note of interesting developments that I find.

Treatment for pulmonary fibrosis may be achieved by blocking cell death in the lung

A research team at Yale has found that blocking a kind of cell death called apoptosis in fibrotic diseases of the lung, also blocks the fibrosis, opening new ways of looking at treatment for lung diseases such as pulmonary fibrosis. [via Feedster Search: Pulmonary Fibrosis]