Winter 2007

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National Jewish Awarded $25 Million for Comprehensive COPD Study

Researchers from National Jewish Medical and Research Center have been awarded a $25 million grant from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to lead the most comprehensive study of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease  (COPD) ever undertaken. The multiinstitutional study will seek to identify the genetic, epidemiological and radiological characteristics of COPD, with a long-term goal of better understanding the disease and finding more effective treatments.

"COPD is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, and yet we know so little about the disease," said James Crapo, MD, professor of medicine at National Jewish and principal investigator of the study. "This study will help us determine which smokers are most at risk of developing the disease, who is most likely to have progressive disease, and how to more effectively treat it."

COPD is an umbrella term for a variety of progressive lung diseases, most commonly emphysema and chronic bronchitis, which damage lung tissue and make it difficult to breathe. Cigarette smoking causes the vast majority of COPD cases. COPD is the only leading case of death in the US that has been steadily increasing in frequency over the past decade. There is no treatment that can cure the disease and only a few measures to extend the lives of patients.

Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston has received $12 million from NHLBI for a study that is closely related and linked to the National Jewish study.