News

Two more countries, Croatia and Turkey, have recently joined the EMPIRE project, a non-interventional international multicentre database of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) in Central and Eastern Europe.

Sixteen Czech MPs have already signed the “European IPF Patient Charter”. The current number of signatures makes it possible for IPF patients to ask the European Parliament to approve this document. The session is expected to be held on 17 November 2016. If the European IPF Patient Charter is approved, IPF patients will become more empowered to demand equal access to diagnostic methods, treatment including lung transplantation, information on IPF, and palliative care for all IPF patients across the EU.

The biggest nationwide congress of Czech specialists in pulmonary medicine has brought many presentations focused on idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Data from the EMPIRE registry were of particular interest, documenting the effect of antifibrotic therapy not only on the decrease in pulmonary function over time, but also on the survival of IPF patients.

Patient recruitment to a clinical study by the Promedior company will be launched probably in July 2016. The Department of Pulmonary Medicine at the Thomayer Hospital will be the only centre in the Czech Republic participating in this study. A new antibody against pentraxin will be tested in this trial; according to the study sponsor, this antibody is the first drug ever which might not only slow down the disease progression, but also lead to a decrease in fibrotic changes.

This meeting of IPF specialists was attended by physicians from many Central and Eastern European countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia), but also from Switzerland, Germany, Canada or Israel.

We would like to thank all members of the Steering Committee for their participation in the third meeting. The next meeting is tentatively scheduled for 3 September 2016 in London, before the ERS Congress. The venue will be specified.

The Czech guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) have been updated recently. In particular, there has been a significant change in the recommendation for treatment of this condition.