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Bob Perkins has suffered from emphysema for the past seven years, despite having quit smoking in 1997. His lungs have become too large for his chest, trapping air inside and compromising his ability to breathe. Two million Americans suffer from this same life-altering condition, which is the fourth leading cause of death in the US. For most patients, treatment options are very limited.
Other than lung transplantation, lung volume reduction (LVR) has been the only surgical treatment option for emphysema. The procedure can be risky and painful and 30 percent of LVR patients will experience no improvement. Bob Perkins opted instead for the chance to enroll in a new clinical trial at BWH to test a mini-mally-invasive therapy called Bronchoscopic Lung Volume Reduction (BLVR). BLVR is a novel approach to treating emphysema developed by BWH scientists and pulmonary specialists. The brainchild of Ed Ingenito, MD, PhD, a member of the Pulmonary and Critical Care Division, the procedure involves injecting a special gel into the lungs through a bronchoscope. The gel uses tissue-engineering principles to re-program the lungs’ cells to remodel and shrink diseased areas. This reduces the lung size, applying the same principle as traditional lung volume reduction surgery, but hopefully without the side effects and risk associated with a major surgical procedure.
For Bob Perkins, the procedure took less than an hour and he was discharged after one day, a swift process compared to the long LVR procedure, which requires an average length of stay of two to three weeks.
“As soon as I came out of the operating room, I was walking and felt great,” said Perkins. “I’ve also noticed little changes in my breathing during my daily routine. I can shave now without even thinking about it and walk to my mailbox a little bit easier.”
John Reilly, MD, clinical director of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, performed the procedure. He is encouraged by what appears to be very promising initial results, noting that during a recent check-up, Perkins’ breathing tests showed slight signs of improvement. Reilly cautioned that the research team is only examining the safety of the new treatment at this point, per the FDA’s protocol. After six patients are safely treated, the team will test for pulmonary function and efficacy in their next research phase.
“We have never been totally satisfied with our current surgical treatment for this debilitating disease, so BLVR gives us hope that emphysema patients will be offered additional and more promising therapies in the near future,” said Reilly.