Study finds cystic fibrosis drug allows patients to safely scale back lung therapies

Medical Xpress / University of Colorado Anschutz / Journal of Cystic Fibrosis ^ | Dec. 5, 2025 | Scott D. Sagel et al

[ConservativeMind]

A new multi-site study shows that people with cystic fibrosis (CF) who start the triple-drug therapy elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor (ETI) can safely reduce many of their daily lung treatments while maintaining good health for years.

"This is incredibly meaningful for individuals and families living with CF," said lead author Scott Sagel, MD, Ph.D.

"For decades, people with CF have spent hours every day managing their disease. Our findings show that many have stepped back from some of those time-consuming therapies thanks to ETI."

ETI helps the malfunctioning protein that causes CF work more effectively, allowing the lungs to function better from the inside rather than simply treating symptoms like thick mucus or frequent infections.

As more people with CF are being treated with ETI, researchers have been eager to understand whether long-standing respiratory therapies such as inhaled antibiotics and mucus-thinning treatments are still being used at the same level.

To explore this question, the team followed more than 600 children and adults after they began ETI. Children aged 6 to 11 were tracked for up to three years. Adolescents and adults were followed up to four and a half years.

Across all age groups, use of chronic respiratory therapies including hypertonic saline, dornase alfa, inhaled antibiotics and oral azithromycin fell steadily over time. Teens and adults cut their use of these treatments by nearly half and younger children showed similar trends.

A key finding was that stopping multiple daily therapies did not appear to lead to loss of lung function or more respiratory symptoms. This was true across age, sex, and baseline lung function.

Those who discontinued therapies tended to have higher lung function at the start of ETI and were less likely to be infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a common CF-related lung infection.

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TOPICS: Health/Medicine
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[ConservativeMind]

The drugs elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor (ETI) greatly reduce maintenance concerns for cyctic fibrosis patients.

[ConservativeMind]

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