Precision Medicine in Interstitial Lung Disease

This book provides a state-of-the-art update on precision medicine in Interstitial Lung Diseases (ILD). This is a rapidly evolving and growing field. There have been multiple recent manuscripts and reviews on this topic although each of these only includes certain aspects of precision medicine in ILD, broken down in different ways. It is thus the aim of this book to aggregate this information into a single volume.

The first chapter broadly defines precision medicine. This introduces and defines various areas of precision medicine to set the reader up for understanding what is discussed at a higher level for the remainder of the book. The chapter ends with a glossary of relevant terms for quick reference while readers work through the remainder of the book. The second chapter highlights successes and obstacles in using and implementing precision medicine in other lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis and lung cancer.

The next section focuses on how information that is currently available can be thought of as contributing to precision medicine. For instance, how a provider might think of and weigh peripheral monocytosis on a CBC, how race and ethnicity might influence diagnosis and prognosis, and how environmental influences such as air pollution or occupational exposures may interact with genetics leading to increased risk for disease and/or poor outcomes in ILD. One chapter in this section discusses using precision medicine for screening family members for ILD and how knowing results of a patient’s family member’s testing or their clinical course may or may not be useful. Additionally, authors explore how technology is contributing to and influencing ILD diagnosis and treatment. This includes machine learning and AI, particularly in radiology, big data, and more specific patient reported outcomes gathered via apps and devices.

Finally, expert authors highlight the importance of considering economics and equity in precision medicine as some of the above approaches are at this point quite costly to develop and employ and look to what future developments and research are on the horizon.

This is an ideal guide for practicing pulmonary and critical care physicians, those with expertise in interstitial lung diseases as well as general pulmonologists.