COPD Study

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 8, 2003
Contact: Bill Seiler bseiler@umm.edu 410-328-8919
Ellen Beth Levitt eblevitt@umm.edu 410-328-8919

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND SELECTED FOR NATIONAL RESEARCH NETWORK TO STUDY CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) has selected the University of Maryland Medical Center to join a national clinical research network for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The collaborative research project is designed to have a direct impact on the way physicians take care of the approximately 16 million Americans with COPD. A $3 million, five-year grant from the NHLBI to the University of Maryland School of Medicine funds the project.

The network will investigate new treatments and new uses for older therapies, for patients with moderate-to-severe COPD, a term that includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. These diseases are responsible for more than 500,000 hospitalizations, 100,000 deaths and $15 billion in direct medical costs in the U.S. each year.

"Treatment of COPD is generally a very frustrating thing, because there are few treatments which directly impact survival," says principal investigator Steven M. Scharf, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and a pulmonary and critical care specialist at the University of Maryland Medical Center. "But the COPD clinical research network is a very exciting concept, because it harnesses the clinical and research expertise of seven prestigious centers of excellence nationwide in a focused effort to find treatment options that may be of significant benefit to patients," says Dr. Scharf.

The COPD network is modeled after similar, highly successful lung disease-related clinical research networks that have produced better treatments for acute respiratory distress syndrome and asthma.

The COPD network plans to answer some of the more vexing questions associated with the treatment of COPD. For example, while long-term oxygen therapy has been shown to benefit certain patients, Dr. Scharf says physicians are uncertain about the effectiveness of many other treatments routinely recommended for patients with COPD. Questions surround such issues as the indications for specific treatments, the usefulness of new therapies and the best ways to manage patients who have other common diseases or conditions along with COPD.

"We will be looking at short-term ways to increase the quality of life for a person with COPD," says Dr. Scharf, "and to better manage and prevent the periodic increases in the severity of COPD and its symptoms, known as exacerbations."

Exacerbations account for many of the hospitalizations, deaths and costs of care in COPD. The NHLBI says nearly half of patients hospitalized for exacerbations of severe COPD are dead within a year.

Both chronic bronchitis and emphysema impede the flow of air through the airways and out of the lungs. COPD does not include asthma, another obstructive disease. The obstruction from COPD is usually permanent and gets worse over time. Smoking causes 80 to 90 percent of COPD cases. Exposure to certain industrial pollutants may increase the odds for COPD.

In chronic bronchitis, inflammation and swelling narrow and block the airways. In emphysema, the lungs lose their elasticity, the ability to stretch and shrink back, trapping air in tiny air sacs and impairing the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. Emphysema causes irreversible lung damage. Dr. Scharf says most patients with COPD have varying degrees of both chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

Each study that the network launches will last about 18 months. Protocols are under development now for the individual trials. Details about those trials and how patients can volunteer for them should be ready in about six months.

Other centers in the COPD network include Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the University of Colorado at Denver, the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of California at San Francisco.

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