Extract
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a devastating and eventually fatal diffuse parenchymal lung disorder that largely remains refractory to pharmacological therapies [1]. IPF is characterised by excessive fibroblast proliferation leading to the formation of fibroblast foci secreting extracellular matrix, with subsequent disruption of pulmonary structure and function. Despite progress in the understanding of the pathogenesis of IPF, novel treatment modalities show limited efficacy and the prognosis of IPF only slowly improves, with current 5-year mortality rates still ranging from 70% to 80%. To boost prognosis and to rise above incremental reductions in mortality rates of IPF patients, innovative and unorthodox treatment modalities are eagerly awaited.
Abstract
Despite promising examples of anticancer drugs as potential treatment modalities for IPF, these transcriptome data argue against the general nature of anticancer drugs as anti-IPF drugs http://ow.ly/HjsV30nbcji
Footnotes
Conflict of interest: C.A. Spek has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: J. Duitman reports grants from Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research during the conduct of the study.
Support statement: This work was supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (VENI grant 016.186.046). Funding information for this article has been deposited with the Crossref Funder Registry.
- Received September 10, 2018.
- Accepted November 29, 2018.
- Copyright ©ERS 2019
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