Many treatments available for smoking cessation are unaffordable for the majority of smokers, however cytisine is one exception. Jennifer Quint (Thorax’s journal club editor) talks to Robert West (Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London) about the mechanism of the drug and his research into its efficacy and cost-effectiveness. Professor West’s trial was recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

See:
Placebo-controlled trial of cytisine for smoking cessation

Only one treatment is licensed for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and this only in Europe. Luca Richeldi (Center for Rare Lung Diseases, University of Modena, Italy) describes his phase 2 trial of a tyrosine kinase inhibitor to see if it could be safely and effectively used in patients with the disease. Dr Richeldi’s research was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

See also:
Efficacy of a tyrosine kinase inhibitor in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Jennifer Quint (Thorax’s journal club editor) talks to Pallav Shah (a respiratory physician at the Royal Brompton Hospital, UK) about his trial of airway bypass for patients with severe emphysema, recently published in the Lancet.

Dr Shah explains the procedure and how effective it was.

See also:
Bronchoscopic lung-volume reduction with Exhale airway stents for emphysema (EASE trial): randomised, sham-controlled, multicentre trial
Accompanying slides