The study aims to provide new insight into how COPD progresses in people with a smoking history.


RT’s Three Key Takeaways:

  1. Focus on Younger Smokers: The study targets smokers aged 30 to 55 to explore why some develop COPD while others do not, aiming to uncover early warning signs.
  2. Biomarkers for COPD Progression: Researchers are investigating small airway abnormalities and the potential use of sputum as a biomarker to predict COPD development.
  3. Long-term Data Collection: Participants’ health data will be tracked over several years, with baseline and follow-up assessments, alongside biannual updates on symptoms and healthcare utilization.

Researchers are exploring how small airway abnormalities in younger smokers could help identify who is at risk of developing COPD and establish how the chronic lung disease progresses, according to a new article published in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases: Journal of the COPD Foundation.

The multi-year, multicenter study—the SPIROMICS Study of Early Disease Progression (SOURCE)—is focused on enrolling a younger cohort of participants (ages 30 to 55) who have a history of cigarette smoking to help define the mechanisms of COPD progression.

The study has three main goals:

  • To use CT scan imaging to identify which smokers will develop COPD.
  • To identify biomarkers predictive of smokers who will develop COPD.
  • To determine if sputum (phlegm) can be analyzed to predict which smokers will develop COPD.

The study is examining small airway abnormalities that may lead to emphysema, as well as the possibility of using sputum as a biomarker for COPD.

“Most studies on COPD focus on an older cohort of participants, typically those 60 and older. By enrolling younger participants who are at risk of COPD, we hope to determine why some smokers develop emphysema and some do not,” says Jeffrey L. Curtis, MD, professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Health System’s Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine, and co-lead author of the study, in a release. “This study will allow us to provide novel insight into the progression of the disease, which is necessary for the development of new therapies needed for COPD.”

The SOURCE study uses the existing infrastructure from the large, multi-year SPIROMICS study (SubPopulations and InteRmediate Outcome Measures In COPD Study). Participant data is collected at baseline and at three-year follow-up visits. Additional information on symptoms, interim health care utilization, and exacerbations is collected via phone call every six months.

SOURCE is supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and supplemented by contributions made through the COPD Foundation.

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