TWO FUTURE THERAPIES?
Some Hope For Those With COPD
A pair of recent studies—one involving an established expectorant, the other an experimental combination of medication—hold promise for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
The first investigated the effectiveness of carbocisteine, an expectorant available in China but not FDA-approved for use in the United States. The year-long clinical trial involved 709 patients. Those who received daily doses of carbocisteine experienced 25 percent fewer exacerbations and a better overall quality of life than patients who were given a placebo. The study was published in The Lancet.
Lead researcher Dr. Jin-Ping Zheng, of the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Disease in Guangzhou, China, described carbocisteine as “an old medicine. However, carefully conducted clinical trials of existing medications can offer new insights into COPD care,” he observed. While the Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Paul Scanlon considers the results impressive, he notes that drugs used in China and in other parts of the world are often different from those used in the U.S. He says that carbocisteine may have a role for U.S. patients if it proves to be as effective as other established treatments.
A separate study tested a combination of salmeterol, a β-agonist, and fluticasone propiniate, an inhaled cortical steroid. This double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted in 42 countries and led by researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine.
Results, reported in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, showed the combination regimen slowed progression of COPD, regardless of sex, age, ethnicity and body-mass index. “To date, smoking cessation is the only intervention that has conclusively been shown to alter the rate of decline” in lung function, notes study author Dr. Bartolome R. Celli. This trial is the first to demonstrate medications that attack the disease, not just its symptoms, he adds.