The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) today announced the selection of the 18 medical centers and the data coordinating center that will conduct the first multi-center clinical trial of lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS). (The list of centers is attached.)

The LVRS study is designed to show whether lung volume reduction surgery is a safe and effective procedure for patients in the last stages of emphysema, a chronic lung condition usually caused by smoking that is a major cause of death and disability in the United States. The procedure involves surgical removal of about 20 to 30 percent of each lung.

The study will be conducted by the NHLBI, and HCFA will cover the patient care costs for the Medicare beneficiaries who participate.

"We are pleased to be working with HCFA on this study," said NHLBI Director Dr. Claude Lenfant. "For although LVRS has been reported to improve lung function and quality of life in some cases, there still are many questions about its benefits and risks that should be answered before it is used widely. This study should provide the answers to these questions."

"We need to know whether Medicare should cover this procedure," said HCFA Administrator Bruce C. Vladeck. "The LVRS study should provide the data that we need to determine whether it is effective. And we hope the study will be a model for future collaborations between HCFA and NIH."

As a first step, a registry of all emphysema patients referred to the participating medical centers will be created. Approximately 2,600 patients from the registry who meet specific inclusion criteria will be invited to participate in the randomized trial. All participants in the trial will receive intensive medical therapy and rehabilitation. Half will also be selected randomly to undergo LVRS. It is expected that the first patients will be enrolled in the registry starting late in the summer of 1997, and enrollment will continue at least until the summer of 1999.

All participants will be evaluated for exercise ability, lung function, quality of life, illness and survival, and the results for the patients who underwent LVRS will be compared with those for the other patients. Although it has been estimated that it will take seven years to complete the study, treatment recommendations may be made sooner than that if the data, which are reviewed every three months by an independent panel of experts, show clear-cut benefits or risks.

The decision to undertake the study grew out of two independent assessments. One, an NHLBI workshop of medical experts, held in September 1995, recommended that systematic evaluation of long-term outcomes of LVRS and of patient selection criteria was urgently needed before the procedure became more widely practiced. A separate, but simultaneous, assessment of the procedure, conducted for HCFA by the federal Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, found that the current data on the risks and benefits of LVRS were too inconclusive to justify unrestricted Medicare reimbursement for the procedure. A clinical trial evaluating the effectiveness of the surgery was recommended. In April 1996, the NHLBI and HCFA announced that they would collaborate on the study.

Approximately 2 million Americans, most of them over age 50, have been diagnosed with emphysema. Current treatment for patients in the end stages of emphysema is largely supportive, including nutritional supplementation and exercise rehabilitation. Lung transplantation may be an option for some patients under age 60, but donor lungs are scarce, and the procedure is expensive. The LVRS study will show whether this procedure can provide another treatment option for some of these patients.

NOTE: People with emphysema who want to participate in the study should discuss this with their doctors and ask for a referral to one of the participating centers, or call the patient coordinator at the nearest participating center.

NHLBI press releases, fact sheets, and other materials are available on the Internet via the NHLBI home page at http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/nhlbi/nhlbi.htm

NHLBI LUNG VOLUME REDUCTION SURGERY STUDY

Clinical Centers

Cleveland Clinic Foundation
Cleveland, OH
Principal Investigator: Janet R. Maurer, MD
216-444-6505
Patient Referral: 1-800-822-9488
Other Information: Barbara Higgins, RN
1-800-223-2273, Ext. 54215 of 216-445-4215

University of California, San Diego Medical Center
San Diego, CA
Principal Investigator: Andrew Ries, MD
619-294-6068
Patient Referral: Trina Limberg
619-294-6066

University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI
Principal Investigator: Fernando J. Martinez, MD
313-936-5201
Patient Referral: Telecare, 800-742-2300 Routing #6235
Other Information: Pamela Lewis, RN
313-647-7840

Temple University
Philadelphia, PA
Principal Investigator: Gerard J. Criner, MD
215-707-8113
Patient Referral: Anne Marie Kuzma, RN
215-707-1334

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Los Angeles, CA
Principal Investigator: Robert McKenna, MD
213-977-1170
Patient Information: Brenda Williams
1-800-CEDARS-1 or Fax 310-854-3917
Other Information: Zab Mohsenifar, MD, Principal Investigator
310-855-4685 or Fax 310-967-0129

Ohio State University
Columbus, OH
Principal Investigator: Philip T. Diaz, MD
614-293-4925
Patient Referral: Mary Lou Coffee
614-293-4509

University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA
Principal Investigator: Robert J. Keenan, MD
412-648-8474
Patient Referral: Betsy George, RN
412-648-6736

Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center/
Long Island Jewish Center
New York, NY
Principal Investigator: Mark Ginsburg, MD
212-305-3408
Patient Referral:
Patricia A. Jellen, MSN, RNC, 212-305-1158
Kerry McKeon, RN, 718-470-4200

National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine
Denver, CO
Principal Investigator: Reuben M. Cherniack, MD
303-398-1503
Patient Referral: Lung Line, 1-800-222-LUNG
Other Information: Physician Referral Line
1-800-NJC-9555

Washington University
St. Louis, MO
Principal Investigator: Joel D. Cooper, MD
314-362-6021
Patient Referral: Deen Scharff
314-362-6044

Brigham & Women's Hospital
Boston, MA
Principal Investigator: John J. Reilly, MD
617-732-7420
Patient Referral: Tammy Weihrauch
1-888-BWH-LUNG (1-888-294-5864)

Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX
Principal Investigator: Rafael Espada, MD
713-798-4556
Patient Referral: Charles Miller
1-800-622-9567

Duke University Medical Center
Durham, NC
Principal Investigator: Neil R. MacIntyre, MD
919-681-2720
Patient Referral: Janet Johns
919-681-2720

Mayo Clinic
Rochester, MN
Principal Investigator: Rolf D. Hubmayr, MD
507-255-5441
Patient Referral: Kristin A. Bradt
507-284-4619

University of Maryland at Baltimore
Baltimore, MD
Principal Investigator: Mark J. Krasna, MD
410-328-6366
Patient Referral: Karen King, RN
410-328-2168

University of Pennsylvania Medical Center
Philadelphia, PA
Principal Investigator: Larry Kaiser, MD
215-662-7538
Patient Referral: Penn Health Customer Service
1-800-789-PENN

University of Washington
Seattle, WA
Principal Investigator: Richard K. Albert, MD
206-543-3166
Patient Referral: Doctors, Inc.
1-800-826-1121

Saint Louis University
St. Louis, MO
Principal Investigator: Keith S. Naunheim, MD
314-577-8360
Patient Referral: Gina Roelke
800-268-5880
Other Information: Laura Taylor Bianchi
314-577-8360

Coordinating Center

The Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD
Principal Investigator: Steven Piantadosi, MD
410-955-4884