Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Dear Colleagues,

In the last 10 years, remarkable efforts, from the National Health Services, scientific societies, clinicians, patient associations and pharmacological industries, have been made in improving the quality of life of patients, and in lowering death rates caused by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Despite all these efforts, COPD continues to be a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Current approaches for the prevention and treatment of COPD are not fully effective. Good studies of translational medicine are mandatory to reach a better understanding, at the molecular level, of the pathogenesis of COPD and pulmonary emphysema. We still have significant unmet needs in terms of the pathogenesis and pharmacological personalized treatment of COPD. In addition, there are clinical associations and molecular links, still largely under investigated, between COPD, lung cancer and pulmonary fibrosis (all smoking-related diseases) but with different clinical–pathological expressions. It is particularly relevant that in a large longitudinal study of asymptomatic patients with mild-to-moderate COPD, ~33% of subjects died of lung cancer over ~15 years, suggesting that lung cancer is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in COPD patients. These patients shared a common environmental risk factor (smoking) and a genetic predisposition represented by the incidence of these diseases in only a fraction of smokers. COPD is also a major independent risk factor for lung carcinoma, among long-term heavy smokers.

This Special Issue will provide an open access opportunity to publish research work and review articles related to recent advances in the field of COPD, new molecular insights and potential therapeutic strategies for better patient diagnosis and disease prevention.

Prof. Dr. Gaetano Caramori
Guest Editor

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• COPD
• pulmonary fibrosis
• lung carcinoma
• pulmonary emphysema
• pathogenesis
• treatment
• diagnosis