Lung Transplantation for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

Despite advances in the development of novel pharmaceutical agents to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), there are no medical therapies known to resolve fibrosis or improve lung function in IPF. Therefore, lung transplantation remains the only life-saving therapy available to treat patients with IPF. However, a shortage of suitable donor organs limits the number of affected individuals who can undergo this procedure, and this shortage highlights the need to allocate donor lungs to those who are in the greatest need of a life-saving therapy yet ensure that those who undergo transplantation will have a reasonable expectation of long-term survival. Still, outcomes remain relatively poor for many patients after lung transplantation, although a sizable minority of patients can enjoy long-term survival after lung transplantation.