The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 276 No 7384 p66
21 January 2006

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Inhaled ciclosporin improves survival in lung transplants

Inhaled ciclosporin improves chronic rejection and survival in lung transplant patients, a randomised, double-blind trial concludes.

The study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, assigned 58 patients to receive either 300mg of aerosol ciclosporin or aerosol placebo, three times a week for the first two years post-transplant (2006;354:141).

The authors found no statistical difference in the rate of acute rejection (the primary end point) between the two groups. However, patients in the active treatment group had a substantially higher rate of survival (relative risk of death, 0.20; 95 per cent confidence interval, 0.06-0.70; P=0.01) and better chronic rejection-free survival (relative risk of chronic rejection, 0.38; 95 per cent CI, 0.18-0.82; P=0.01) compared with placebo.

The risks of nephrotoxicity and opportunistic infection were similar for both the ciclosporin group and the placebo group.