A nationwide study led by a researcher at Penn Medicine will collect data from thousands of lung transplant recipients in an effort to improve outcomes for patients.
With a 7-year, $9.8 million grant from the National Institutes of health, the multi-center study aims to better understand the mechanisms that determine what makes a transplant effective and viable in the long-term.
The study also will measure the functional status and quality of life among transplant recipients to evaluate what makes some patients more suitable for this complex and relatively novel procedure.
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Each year, about 2,300 adults undergo lung transplants in the United States. Despite improvements in outcomes over the last two decades, approximately 40% of these patients die within five years, many of them as a result of a condition called chronic lung allograft dysfunction (CLAD).
“Lung transplant is still a relatively new field, and there are considerable gaps in our understanding of the mechanisms that impact lung function and long-term outcomes post-transplant,” said the study’s principal investigator Jason D. Christie, chief of the division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine at Penn.
The study will collect data from more than 4,000 lung transplant patients across the United States.
“With such a large and diverse population of transplant recipients, this study presents an unparalleled opportunity to examine long-term outcomes of lung transplant recipients and advance our knowledge of the mechanisms that lead to post-transplant complications, organ rejection and functional outcomes," Christie added.
One goal of the study is to learn more about the specific causes and risk factors for CLAD, which will be done by collecting biosamples to perform long-term phenotyping.
The study is an extension of the 11-center Lung Transplant Outcomes Group (LTOG), an initiative Christie first began in 2007.