Letter from the Editor

Dear Reader,

 

This year’s International Congress of the American Thoracic Society (ATS) was again the place to be to get the most recent update in important areas of pulmonary diseases.

Short- and long-term data on the effects and safety of biological agents are accumulating and may guide to further personalise pharmacological treatment. Modulators of IL-5 and IL4/IL13 activity show important effects on exacerbation rates, hospitalisations, and dose of oral corticosteroids. Insights in careful patient selection are increasing.

The main changes in the GOLD 2018 recommendations for COPD have been discussed. The 2017 way to categorise patients by splitting level or airflow limitation and levels of complaints and exacerbations connects better to the daily clinical practise than the previous one. Also, increasing data on LABA/LAMA combinations and when they are preferred to LABA/ICS combinations were presented.

Treatment options in lung cancer are increasingly expanding and provide better outcomes for patients. Data on long-term effects are accumulating. The occurrence  of sometimes serious AEs is being more easily recognised. Simultaneously, screening remains an important early stage diagnostic tool. It should be considered in a large number of individuals who may be at high risk of developing cancer.

Respiratory infections remain a burden worldwide, and new therapeutic strategies continue to be investigated. Also, underlying causes and risk factors have been subjected to extensive research, elucidating some of these processes. Interesting data on old and new agents in tuberculosis were presented.

If you have not been able to experience these aspects of the ATS yourself, this report will outline the most significant advancements discussed at the conference, and practical advice disseminated there. Besides the topics indicated above, interesting findings regarding lung cancer and pulmonary hypertension are also presented. So, we hope that you will enjoy reading this Conference Report!

 

Kind regards,

Prof. Richard Dekhuijzen

 

Biography

Prof. P.N. Richard Dekhuijzen is Professor of Pulmonology at the Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. His specific area of clinical and research interest includes asthma, COPD, and inhalation technology. He studied medicine at VU Amsterdam and completed his training in pulmonology at the Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis in Amsterdam and in the Academic Hospital Nijmegen. In 1989, he finished his PhD thesis on training of the respiratory muscles in COPD, followed by a PhD thesis on steroid induced myopathy of the diaphragm in 1994 at the Catholic University Leuven (Belgium). He is author/co-author of over 330 peer-reviewed papers and many textbook chapters on respiratory medicine. From 2008-2010, he was Head of the Cardiology Department at Radboudumc. Until 2016, he chaired the Department of Pulmonary Diseases, the Heart-Lung Centre Nijmegen, and the Medical Staff at Radboudumc. He is the scientific chair of the Aerosol Drug Management Improvement Team (ADMIT) and chair of the Dutch Inhalation Technology Working Group. Currently, he is chair of the Medical Ethical Committee of the Radboudumc.



Posted on 23 May, 201815 March, 2021