News
Inhaled anti-rejection drug Cyclosprine, Improved Lung Function after Transplant
According to a study that was presented at the American Thoracic Society International Conference on May 22nd, lung transplant patients who received the inhaled form of the anti-rejection drug cyclosporine had significantly better lung function.
"Many lung transplant patients develop chronic rejection of the new lung--it is the Achilles heel of the transplant process," said lead researcher Aldo Iacono, M.D., Medical Director of Lung Transplantation at the University of Maryland Medical Center and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.
"Typically, patients experience a progressive, inexorable decline in lung function, most likely because of this chronic rejection and infections. This finding that aerosolized cyclosporine preserves lung function bolsters our previous findings that the drug reduces chronic rejection of the lung."
Related previous study which found that inhaled cyclosporine improved survival and extended periods of chronic rejection-free survival in lung transplant patients was published in January 2006 at The New England Journal of Medicine.