Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Coordinator: Dra. Mª Rosa Faner Canet

Insights of Novel Trends Evaluation of lung Growth Routes, Airway disease and Lung Cancer (INTEGRAL)  

Recent research has shown that Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) can be the end result of dynamic and cumulative gene-environment interactions starting early in life, but spanning and accumulating across the lifespan (i.e. GETomics). These interactions, drive the balance between lung health and disease, and determine a range of lung function trajectories (i.e. trajectome). The association of low lung function trajectories with cardiovascular and metabolic morbidity has been established, but the association with lung cancer has not been explored so far. Finally, COPD guidelines recommend the use of inhaled steroids in a specific patient profile prone to exacerbations, however inflammatory biomarkers of response to ICS treatment have not been explored in the GETomics framework so far. These observations open new opportunities for the prediction, prevention, personalized and precise management of COPD patients.

INTEGRAL, the new COPD research program of CIBERES, is aimed to investigate the determinants of the trajectome and associated morbidity, including lung cancer, across the lifespan. To do so, we will build upon the joint ongoing projects of the members of the CIBERES COPD program (such as P4COPD, among others), and we will: (1) clinically, phenotypically, microbiologically and molecularly characterize the pre-COPD, young-COPD and old-COPD individuals, across the trajectome; (2) collaborate with the CIBERES lung cancer program to jointly explore the associations between COPD, lung cancer and the trajectome; (3) explore the relevance of the imaging techniques in the detection of pulmonary alterations across the trajectome, and (4) assess inflammatory biomarkers of therapeutic response in young vs. old-COPD over time.

This program is of high clinical relevance because: (1) both COPD and lung cancer are highly prevalent and with a high socio-economic toll, and (2) identifying which young individuals are at risk of developing COPD and/or lung cancer, that can benefit from preventive, personalized and precise measures, can change the way in which these diseases are diagnosed, managed and treated.