Iloprost: Lung Damage Caused by Smoking

By Ed Susman, Contributing Writer, MedPage Today
Published: August 06, 2009 Reviewed by Dori F. Zaleznik, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston and Dorothy Caputo, MA, RN, BC-ADM, CDE, Nurse Planner

SAN FRANCISCO -- Treating asymptomatic ex-smokers with oral iloprost can mitigate the changes that lead to non-small cell lung cancer and other diseases, researchers suggested here.

Animal studies have indicated that prostacyclin supplementation prevented development of lung cancer. With those studies as background, Keith and his colleagues enrolled patients in a multicenter, double-blind, placebo- controlled, phase II trial of iloprost in patients at increased risk for lung cancer./.../