Feature Channels: Respiratory Diseases and Disorders

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While on-the-job fatalities due to injuries and accidents have steadily decreased in nearly every industry in the U.S., the burden of debilitating lung disease in the coal mining industry has sharply increased within the last decade. A new study published in Risk Analysis: An International Journal examines whether compliance with health regulations at mines across the country was sufficient to decrease instances of lung disease.

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Eye inflammation and uveal effusion develop among patients taking anti-cancer immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy.

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Future astronauts spending long periods of time on the Moon could suffer bronchitis and other health problems by inhaling tiny particles of dust from its surface, according to new research.

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The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Spectrum Pharmaceuticals have signed a licensing agreement that covers discoveries by MD Anderson researchers about the company’s drug poziotinib, a targeted therapy for lung cancer.

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According to a new study, the status of lymph nodes rather than the status of the primary tumor following preoperative neoadjuvant chemotherapy or chemoradiation therapy is the most important factor that determines whether patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer will survive. The study presented at the American Association for Thoracic Surgery’s 98th Annual Meeting indicates that while preoperative chemotherapy and radiation therapy improve the survival of patients with esophageal cancer, patients with malignant lymph nodes following therapy were less likely to survive than patients with no cancer in the lymph nodes.

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Unfortunately, many sick patients are being denied the opportunity to test new drugs that might save their lives. It’s time for this to change.

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On World Asthma Day 2018, the National Institutes of Health stands with people worldwide to renew our commitment to advance understanding of asthma and develop effective strategies to manage, treat and ultimately prevent the disease. A new three-minute NIH video features asthma patients and doctors.

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Significant upstaging or reclassification to a more advanced stage due to cancer progression in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) can occur with each successive week from initial clinical staging to surgery, according to data presented at the American Association for Thoracic Surgery’s 98th Annual Meeting. The same study showed that early intervention after completion of clinical staging leads to increased survival rates.

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Robot-assisted tracheobronchoplasty (R-TBP) can be safely performed, and expands the treatment options for patients with tracheobronchomalacia, a complex, high-risk population, according to a study presented at the American Association for Thoracic Surgery’s 98th Annual Meeting. This procedure is minimally invasive compared to the accepted treatment, and resulted in low morbidity, no mortality, and significant improvement of patients’ symptoms.

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Scientists at Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago have identified a gene called FoxM1 as a promising target for treatment of pulmonary hypertension, or high blood pressure in the lung arteries. Patients with this severe lung disease that damages the right side of the heart have a five-year survival rate of 50 percent. The study results, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, will drive development of new drugs to reverse a process called vascular remodeling, or thickening of lung artery walls – a key feature in pulmonary hypertension.

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Johns Hopkins researchers report success with a smart phone video-based app that substitutes for a daily in-person visit by a health care worker required for tuberculosis treatment known as directly observed therapy, or DOT. The preliminary study showed that the app may be less costly and may improve privacy concerns raised by patients compared to in-person visits.

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A drug that failed to effectively strike larger targets in lung cancer hits a bulls-eye on the smaller target presented by a previously untreatable form of the disease, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report in Nature Medicine.

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Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and collaborators from Shanghai University in China examined more than 6,000 compounds and identified a drug that relaxes the muscles and opens the airways, allowing those with asthma to breathe. Find out why this new therapy might give people a better option and new hope.

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After testing more than 200,000 chemical compounds, UT Southwestern’s Simmons Cancer Center researchers have identified 170 chemicals that are potential candidates for development into drug therapies for lung cancer.

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In a new analysis of interviews conducted with children who have asthma, their caregivers and their clinicians, Johns Hopkins researchers found that there was significant lack of agreement about why the kids miss their needed daily anti-inflammatory medication.

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University of Colorado Cancer Center study presented at AACR 2018 describes new model for patient-researcher collaboration organized not around cancer type but around oncogene that causes many cancers

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Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, along with the Institute for Health Research at Kaiser Permanente Colorado, Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, and Marshfield Clinic Health System in Wisconsin, have received a five-year, $15.5 million National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant to improve lung cancer screening. Specifically, the focus will be on improving the effectiveness of screening, and increasing the delivery of screening in populations that experience disparities in early diagnosis, treatment, and mortality for this deadly cancer.

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The immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab, when combined with chemotherapy, doubles survival in patients with non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSNSCLC) lacking genetic changes in the EGFR or ALK genes, when compared to chemotherapy alone, according to an international, Phase III clinical trial.

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A drug given to early stage lung cancer patients before they undergo surgery showed major tumor responses in the removed tumor and an increase in anti-tumor T-cells that remained after the tumor was removed, which resulted in fewer relapse cases in the patients.

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A phase I, first-in-human study led by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reveals for the first time, an investigational drug that is effective and safe for patients with cancers caused by an alteration in the receptor tyrosine kinase known as RET. The drug appears to be promising as a potential therapy for RET-driven cancers, such as medullary and papillary thyroid, non-small cell lung, colorectal and bile duct cancers, which have been historically difficult to treat.

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Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) accounts for 14 percent of all lung cancers and is often rapidly resistant to chemotherapy resulting in poor clinical outcomes. Treatment has changed little for decades, but a study at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center offers a potential explanation for why the disease becomes chemoresistant, and a possible avenue to explore new diagnostic approaches.

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Even the briefest increase in airborne fine particulate matter PM2.5, pollution-causing particles that are about 3 percent of the diameter of human hair, is associated with the development of acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) in young children, according to newly published research. Increases in PM2.5 levels also led to increased doctor visits for these lung infections.

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Even the briefest increase in airborne fine particulate matter PM2.5, pollution-causing particles that are about 3% of the diameter of human hair, is associated with the development of acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) in young children, according to newly published research.

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For Medicare accountable care organizations (ACOs), primary care management of common chronic diseases is an important strategy for providing cost-effective care. But early data suggest that the proportion of visits for chronic conditions delivered by primary care providers (PCPs) varied between ACOs, reports a study in the May issue of Medical Care, published by Wolters Kluwer.

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Researchers have found that two targeted therapies could be more effective if used in combination to treat squamous cell carcinomas of the lung. The two drugs, MLN128 and CB-839, individually target the metabolism of key nutrients glucose and glutamine, respectively, prohibiting the cancer from switching metabolic gears between glucose (a simple sugar) and glutamine (an amino acid) to tap vital sources of energy. This switch enables the cancer cells to adapt their metabolism and evade treatments.

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The ATS Foundation is pleased to announce a new ATS Foundation/Insmed Research Award in Non-Tuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM) Lung Disease, which will provide one year of funding support in the amount of $50,000.

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Professor Lim Chwee Teck and PhD student Ms Lim Su Bin from the Department of Biomedical Engineering at National University of Singapore developed a personalised risk assessment tool based on 29 novel genes to predict survival rate and treatment outcomes of early-stage lung cancer patients.

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Scientists searching for a therapy to stop the deadly and mostly untreatable lung disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), found a new molecular target that slows or stops the illness in preclinical laboratory tests. Researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center report their data in the journal Cell Reports. Studying mice with IPF and donated human cells, they identified a gene called FOXF1 that inhibits the IPF disease.

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Some of what you think are allergy symptoms could be signs of asthma.

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By April, nearly one-third of the U.S. is already experiencing high pollen levels while the weather and temperatures continue to fluctuate, aggravating sinus symptoms. A patient’s mucus may predict the type of his or her chronic sinusitis, which could help doctors determine whether surgery or medical treatments can produce the best outcomes, according to a recently published Vanderbilt study.

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A new blood test has been found to more accurately predict the development of tuberculosis up to two years before its onset in people living with someone with active TB, according to research published online in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, an American Thoracic Society journal.

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The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) today issued an update to its clinical guideline for the use of palliative-intent radiation therapy for patients with incurable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Reflecting new evidence from randomized clinical trials, the guideline now recommends the addition of concurrent chemotherapy to radiation therapy for certain patients with incurable stage III NSCLC, including those who are able to tolerate chemotherapy and have a life expectancy longer than three months.

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A one-two combo punch using two currently available drugs could be an effective treatment for the majority of lung cancers, a study by scientists with UT Southwestern’s Simmons Cancer Center shows.

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A team of researchers including scientists from the University of Georgia has found that the resurgence of pertussis, more commonly known as whooping cough, in the U.S. is a predictable consequence of incomplete coverage with a highly effective vaccine. This finding goes against pervasive theories on why we are seeing a steady increase in the disease even though the vaccine is given at an early age.

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NYU Langone Health surgeons perform the Transplant Institute's first lung transplant, give Brooklyn woman with pulmonary fibrosis two new lungs.

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Researchers and public health officials have struggled to explain the resurgence of whooping cough in the United States since the late 1970s, and the suspected shortcomings of the current generation of vaccines are often blamed. But a new University of Michigan-led study concludes that the resurgence of the highly contagious respiratory disease is the result of factors—including a phenomenon known as the honeymoon period—that began in the middle of the last century, long before the latest vaccines were introduced in the late 1990s.

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A systematic study of seven antioxidants commonly taken by or suggested to benefit children and adults affected with mitochondrial disease provides intriguing clues that at least two compounds should be further evaluated in clinical trials. There are currently no proven, effective treatments for mitochondrial disease.

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Working with cells that line the innermost layer of the blood vessels, Johns Hopkins investigators say they have made a leap forward in understanding the underlying biology behind pulmonary hypertension, a dangerous type of high blood pressure in lungs that ultimately leads to right heart failure and death.

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Microbiologist Emily Cope talks about her research on how altered microbiota composition or function influences airway inflammatory diseases, chiefly CRS as well as asthma and cystic fibrosis.

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Cancer experts debate whether there's a glut of immunotherapy trials.

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Cultural taboos surrounding the disease have lessened, but continued research and education are still needed.

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The drug, regadenoson, is already commonly used to image cardiac patients’ hearts. But the UVA research suggests it could be put to another, lifesaving purpose.

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As the winter cold season melts into seasonal spring allergies, many people may start to experience sneezing, wheezing and other breathing difficulties. Sometimes, the trouble goes away after a few days, but if it lingers or recurs, asthma could be the culprit.

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Understanding of tuberculosis is associated with higher, not lower, stigmatization of TB patients in Brazil, according to a new “Insights” report from Vanderbilt’s Latin American Public Opinion Project.

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Limiting first-year medical residents to 16-hour work shifts, compared to “flexing” them to allow for some longer shifts, generally makes residents more satisfied with their training and work-life balance, but their training directors more dissatisfied with curtailed educational opportunities. That’s one conclusion of a new study published online March 20 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Every year, approximately 12 million adults in the U.S. are diagnosed with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, and 120,000 die from it. For people with COPD, Haemophilus influenzae, a bacterium, can be particularly dangerous. Now, researchers have unraveled how the bacterium adapts quickly, which may open new avenues for therapy for COPD and other diseases such as ear infections or pneumonia.

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Children with mild to moderate asthma do not benefit from a common practice of increasing their inhaled steroids at the first signs of an asthma exacerbation, according to clinical trial results published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers found short-term increases in inhaled steroids did not prevent attacks in children aged 5 to 11, and may even slow a child’s growth.

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Imagine if doctors could diagnose their patients with lung or esophageal cancer by simply swabbing the inside of their cheeks. Vadim Backman, a biomedical engineer at Northwestern University, has developed a new technology that could make that seemingly simple solution a reality.

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Scientists are one step closer to understanding how cells reshape their surfaces to internalize material from their surroundings, thanks to collaboration among researchers from two South Dakota universities and the National Institutes of Health.

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Nearly all school nurses participating in a national survey (96 percent) reported that staff at their school received training on handling severe allergic reactions to food. Over 80 percent asserted that their school had an emergency epinephrine auto-injector on hand to stop a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction. The study findings, published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, also underscore the dire need for these policies, with over one-third of the school nurses reporting at least one severe allergic reaction to food at their school in the last academic year.