Immunosuppression is the standard treatment for patients with connective tissue disease associated with interstitial lung disease. However, different approaches toward diagnosis and management are on the horizon. Those developing approaches will be explained using case studies during a Monday symposium.

“There are nuances to treating and managing these challenging patients that can be important. Consideration for novel therapies, including clinical trial participation, and lung transplantation should be part of the discussion,” says the session moderator, Joyce Lee, MD. “These patients have challenging clinical scenarios.

“This session is an opportunity to touch on what is being done from a research perspective in trying to help us better diagnose and manage our patients with connective tissue disease-ILD.”

Joyce Lee, MD

During the session, a case will be presented, and a multidisciplinary panel of a clinician, radiologist, and pathologist will discuss diagnosis and treatment. Mixed in will be lectures on a topic related to the case discussed.

“It is an opportunity for people to observe this multidisciplinary approach that often is done in larger centers,” says Dr. Lee, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Denver and director of its interstitial lung disease program.

“Second, it focuses on cases that we see in the clinical realm and uses those cases to highlight the conundrums that come up in terms of diagnosis and management, and how research that is ongoing will hopefully help us answer some of these questions down the line,” she says.

Case 1 and the talk that follows will examine the role of histopathologic phenotypes, which may be important in managing idiopathic interstitial pneumonias.

“The talk will cover the relevance of histopathologic phenotypes of autoimmune forms of ILD and emerging therapies to consider in this group of diseases,” Dr. Lee says.

Case 2 and a related presentation will explore interstitial pneumonia with autoimmune features. The speaker will discuss a recent workgroup statement on IPAF management.

“It was not developed for clinical purposes, but it may help us better study these groups of patients and figure out what this means in terms of the disease entity, its pathobiology, and its natural history,” Dr. Lee says.

Case 3 and its related talk will evaluate treatment and management options beyond conventional immunosuppression.

“The presentation will touch on some more novel therapies that are being tried,” Dr. Lee says. “It will discuss the data and share the pros and cons of lung transplantation and why it is often difficult in this patient population.”

The symposium will end with a panel discussion in which audience members will be able to ask questions beyond the option emphasized in each case.

A Multidisciplinary, Case-Based Approach to Hot Topics in CTD-ILD (B83) is supported by an educational grant from Gilead Sciences, Inc.

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