Slowing and possible prevention of disease progression

There is an urgent need for more manageable surrogate markers that could identify candidate treatments that might slow disease progression.¹

While FEV₁ decline has to date been regarded as the gold standard of COPD progression, different measures are likely to provide a more specific assessment of disease activity and progression within clinical subtypes of COPD. In the past, only the therapeutic intervention of smoking cessation  has been demonstrated to alter the natural history of COPD.² However, recently it has been suggested that a combination of a LABA and ICS may slow the decline in lung function in COPD patients.³

References

1. Cazzola M, MacNee W, Martinez FJ, et al. Outcomes for COPD pharmacological trials: from lung function to biomarkers. Eur Respir J 2008;31:416–469.
2. Anthonisen NR, Connett JE, Kiley JP, et al. Effects of smoking intervention and the use of an inhaled anticholinergic bronchodilator on the rate of decline of FEV₁. The Lung Health Study. JAMA 1994;272:1497–1505.
3. Celli BR, Thomas NE, Anderson JA, et al. Effect of pharmacotherapy on rate of decline of lung function inc chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: results from the TORCH study. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2008;178:332-338.