Danish Lung Cancer Screening Study joins COPACETIC consortium
The Danish Lung Cancer Screening Study (DLCST) will join the COPACETIC project as a full partner and serve as a next replication cohort with the emphasis on emphysema.
As known the COPACETIC project investigates the genetics of COPD and much emphasis is placed on the two major COPD-phenomena: obstructive disease and emphysema. The latter received less attention up to now, as the marker for emphysema was not yet widely available. Current low-dose CT-scanning offers that option, but few groups could combine both spirometry and CT-scanning. The German LUISI-group (prof dr H-U Kauzcor) did, next to the DLCST and therefore the latter adds to the possibilities of replicating emphysema findings.
The DLCST is a lung cancer screening study, carried out in Denmark and led by Jesper Holt Pedersen and Asger Dirksen. The study comprises approx 2000 subjects, which undergo annual low-dose CT-scans and spirometry. Next to that blood samples for DNA analysis were obtained. Participants were >50 years of age, had a smoking history of >20 pack years and had to be able to climb two flights of stairs. These inclusion criteria are very similar to those used in the Nelson study, from which the COPACETIC discovery cohort was drawn. These similarities result in comparable baseline characteristics. The main difference between DLCST and Nelson/COPACETIC is that DLCST included 50% females, while Nelson/COPACETIC subjects are predominantly male.
DLCST will make available demographic/lung function data, CT-scans and DNA-samples. The estimation of the necessary emphysema scores will be done by the Image Science Institute of the UMCU in Utrecht, the Netherlands, using the same software as earlier in the discovery cohort. The DNA will be made available to prof Wijmenga in the UMCG, Groningen, the Netherlands for analysis. The demographic/lung function data are already transferred to prof Boezen (UMCG, Groningen, the Netherlands) and the COPACETIC PI dr. P. Zanen (UMCU, Utrecht, the Netherlands).
DLCST will be a full partner of COPACETIC and will be inserted in the consortium agreement soon. Jesper Holt Pedersen and Asger Dirksen will attend the next consortium meeting on April 8th.
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