Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Biomarker Study

Summary

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a progressive disease that is characterized by loss of lung function, leading to breathlessness, poor quality of life, loss in productivity, and increased mortality. The World Health Organization estimates that COPD will be the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2020, accounting for more than 7 million deaths annually. COPD patients frequently experience 'lung attacks', during which breathlessness, coughing, and sputum production dramatically increase, leading to urgent office visits, emergency admissions and hospitalizations. Lung attacks reduce patient quality of life and cost the Canadian health care system nearly $4 billion dollars each year in direct and indirect costs. Lung attacks can be effectively managed if they are identified and treated early, but symptoms of a lung attack often overlap with those of other common conditions such as heart failure, pneumonia and even influenza. Because there are no tests that can separate lung attacks from these conditions, doctors struggle to accurately diagnose lung attacks at an early stage when drugs are most effective. This can lead to a delayed or even incorrect diagnosis and inappropriate treatment. This research will address this critical need. Our goal is to improve COPD patient care by developing new blood tests that will help identify patients who are in the early stages of a lung attack. Doctors will be able to use these tests to treat lung attacks at earlier stages than is currently possible. These blood tests will enable doctors to personalize management of COPD to meet the needs of the individual patient.

Hypothesis: New biomarker blood tests can be used to better identify and manage patients with COPD.

Conditions

• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Genome British Columbia

  collaborator INDUSTRY

• Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research

  collaborator OTHER

• Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Genome Quebec

  collaborator OTHER

• Providence Health & Services

  collaborator OTHER

• St. Paul's Hospital, Canada

  collaborator OTHER

• University of British Columbia

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Donald D Sin, MD, MPH · University of British Columbia, St. Paul's Hospital, James Hogg Research Centre

Eligibility

Min Age

19 Years

Max Age

95 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2013-04-30

Primary Completion

2017-12-31

Completion

2021-12-31

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations