New drugs and research

There is a huge amount we still need to learn about bronchiectasis. It has previously been a poorly funded research area within lung diseases but we are making progress.

If you are interested in learning more about research then ask your doctors and nurses. A great deal has happened in the last 5 years and many research studies are underway.

There are 2 main areas that researchers are working on:

1) Can we understand more about the condition?

This includes learning more about the bugs that cause infections, and factors that are linked with increased infections or getting sick quicker.

2) Can we apply this knowledge to develop new treatments?

Some of the drugs currently being used to treat bronchiectasis are not based on big research studies specifically looking at their effect in patients with bronchiectasis. They are used in hope that the benefits proven in other lung conditions such as Asthma or COPD (smoking-related lung disease) where they have been rigorously tested, might apply in bronchiectasis.

Some trials test whether such treatments also work in bronchiectasis. The other type of trials are those with medications specially designed for bronchiectasis such as new nebulised or inhaled antibiotics. It often takes several years for newly developed drugs to be tested and become available for patients to use. You can ask your doctor about any new treatments that may become available soon.

For more information please see the research section.

Further information may be found at www.bronch.ac.uk and www.bronchiectasis.eu