Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, Opportunities and Challenges

Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic, progressive and fatal disease. The average survival time has a range between 2 to 5 years, but the progression rate and the size of damage could result unpredictable. This fibrotic illness is limited to lung with low or absent inflammation. Recently, new therapeutic options have been described. Clinical trials were not powered to detect statistically significant differences in mortality; but these have shown a reduction in the rate of decline in lung function. The results remain variables due to the heterogeneity observed in these patients. The challenge is to discover new predicting outcomes, biological indicators of disease progression, short-term measures of therapeutic response or predictors of survival time useful to take decisions about the treatment or help to determine the need of lung transplantation and contribute to it.