The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Lung Tissue Research Consortium (LTRC) was established with the primary purpose of collecting lung tissue and blood samples and a secondary purpose of collecting clinical data, limited exposure data, physiologic studies, and radiographic studies from patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), other related idiopathic interstitial pneumonias (IIP) and interstitial pneumonias associated with connective tissue diseases who undergo medically-indicated lung resection. For the purpose of comparison, lung tissue and similar clinical data will be collected from control subjects who require lung resection. These control subjects will primarily come from cancer patients without poor lung function for whom non-neoplastic tissue can be collected remotely from a nodule or mass and may also come from patients enrolled with suspected interstitial lung disease (ILD) who are shown after pathological examination not to have this disease. All tissue and blood specimens and clinical data will be banked and stored for distribution to future investigators who have approved study proposals and are investigating the pathogenesis of the aforementioned lung diseases.
