When Touch Is Forbidden, Food Becomes My Love Language

Last June, my parents and I stayed in a house in San Francisco while my mom, Diana, recovered from a single-lung transplant. Note that this was 2020 — the year of COVID-19. Because I was…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted fast track status to IM156, ImmunoMet Therapeutics’ treatment candidate for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). “Fast track designation is another important milestone for ImmunoMet with the potential to speed our ability to advance IM156 to patients,” Benjamin Cowen PhD, ImmunoMet’s CEO,…

Note: This article was updated to include information from a Hopkins study published on May 5, 2021, of responses after a second vaccine dose was given to transplant patients. Long before COVID-19 changed the world, organ transplant recipients were wearing masks to shield themselves from airborne threats.

Scientists discovered that blocking a tiny RNA molecule can help rejuvenate aged mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) — which have the ability to give rise to specialized cells — derived from people with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Those rejuvenated stem cells were found to have improved therapeutic efficacy when used…

I’ve been thinking a lot about growth lately. And about how even as we grow up and find out who we are, we never stop changing. It can be hard to face change or to reinvent yourself when you are comfortable with who you’ve become. In the…

Treatment with Ofev (nintedanib) is safe and can preserve lung function in people with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) who are elderly or have several other health conditions, a new study indicates. The study, “Efficacy and safety of nintedanib in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis who…

In a story about living with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), mold would be an antagonist. An abundance of literature outlines the dangers to the lungs of persistent mold exposure, including lung cancer, aspergillosis, and pulmonary fibrosis. In September 2019, I wrote about household hazards that patients with PF…

Small extracellular vesicles (EVs) released from umbilical cord stem cells seem to carry molecules that can inhibit the TGF-beta signaling pathway and reduce tissue damage in the lungs of mice with pulmonary fibrosis (PF), a study shows. The findings support further research on stem cell-derived EVs as a potential…

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is associated with poorer prognosis in patients with lung cancer, a study shows. People with lung cancer showed a higher risk of dying if IPF was present. The findings also suggest that lung cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy, can contribute to poor clinical outcomes by…

Two people with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and poor lung function underwent chemotherapy for small cell lung cancer (SCLC) while continuing with their antifibrotic treatment, with clinical benefit evident in both. These findings suggest that “chemotherapy can be considered in patients…