FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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Mike White
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FROM PEDIATRICIANS TO PULMONOLOGISTS--TREATING TODAY'S CYSTIC FIROSIS PATIENT
New Orleans (10/28/97)--Cystic fibrosis (CF) patients are living longer, presenting new treatment challenges to the physicians who care for them, said Dr. Stanley Fiel, a renowned expert on the disease.
Speaking at a press briefing at the annual scientific meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians in New Orleans, Dr. Fiel said trend data suggests that the average age of the CF patient may reach 40 by the year 2010. For many years, few CF patients lived beyond adolescence and were treated almost exclusively by pediatricians. Today, one-third are over the age of 18 with a median survival age of 31.
According to Dr. Fiel, the reason for the improved survival rates are due to a better understanding of the disease, better patient care that includes new anti-inflammatory agents, improved antibiotic therapy as well as more recent therapies such as dornase alfa (a DNA-derived drug). This growing adult population of patients, Dr. Fiel said, requires that the pulmonologist and the primary care physician become more involved in the care of CF patients. He said this is not simply the issue of pediatricians treating adults. The adult CF patient is subject to such clinical disorders as diabetes mellitus, liver disease, osteoporosis, arthritis, and malignancy.
CF, the most common genetic disease, afflicts 30,000 Americans, mostly of European ancestry. Dr. Fiel said that many scientific and medical disciplines such as microbiologists, geneticists, and protein chemists are joining biomedical researchers in gaining a much better understanding of the pathophysiology of the disease. He said it is the first genetic disease which truly has a cure potential.
Even though CF patients are living longer and longer, most face a premature death. However, there are exceptions. In the October issue of CHEST, the official journal of the American College of Chest Physicians, a case history of CF in an elderly woman was reported. The woman was diagnosed with CF at age 70.
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