What’s next? The University of Iowa’s Dr. Larson said he is hopeful about advances in medical care. “Currently, patients must follow an extremely complex regimen of airway clearance, inhaled antibiotics, and oral medications, typically with recurrent hospitalization with increasing age and eventual death from lung disease or lung transplant,” she said. “However, in the past few years, we have had a dramatic change for a percentage of our patients with the development of small molecules that can actually fix the chloride-channel defect itself.”
The treatment seems to arrest and even improve lung disease in eligible patients, she said. “So the future seems very bright for CF.”
The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has developed a 3-year Envision program to train adult and pediatric endocrinologists in the care of CFRD and endocrine issues.
Dr. Moran had no relevant disclosures. Dr. Norris has consulted for Vertex Pharmaceuticals, which makes cystic fibrosis therapeutics, in the past year. Dr. Larson Ode reports that her research is funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.