Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Job Exposures Study (IPF JES)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Job Exposures Study (IPF JES)
IRAS ID
203355
Contact name
Carl Reynolds
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Imperial College London
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 8 months, 1 days
Research summary
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a scarring lung disease. It damages the air sacs that allow oxygen to be transferred into the blood and transported to vital organs. These changes make people with IPF cough and feel short of breath. We don't know what causes the damage. People who get IPF are usually older than 40; it's a very serious illness that cannot be cured and gets worse over time. Statistics show that IPF is becoming more common in the UK but it's not known why. It can be difficult for doctors to tell if someone has IPF or another disease called asbestosis. Asbestosis is like IPF but different because we know that breathing in asbestos dust has caused the lung damage.
Our study will help to find out how much IPF is due to breathing in asbestos at work. This will help us to understand IPF, make sure people get the right treatment and compensation they are entitled to, and make sure that the rules about asbestos dust at work are right so that we protect workers and prevent disease in the future.
We will recruit men with new diagnoses of IPF (cases) from several hospitals across England and Wales. For purposes of comparison a group of men of the same age attending the same hospitals at about the same time for other conditions (controls) will be recruited, in a ratio of 1:1; the total number of participants will be 920. Participants will complete a telephone interview and will be invited to provide a blood sample to investigate how genetics and asbestos exposure interact in IPF.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/EM/0021
Date of REC Opinion
11 Feb 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion