LAM Fact Sheet
What research is taking place?
Since 1995 both laboratory and clinical research into LAM has increased quite dramatically. The US LAM Foundation has been very successful in involving a number of centres in basic laboratory work to try to find the cause of LAM. Data on patients with LAM are being collected in the US, France, Japan and the UK.
Research in Nottingham (supported by LAM Action) involves both clinical and laboratory research. Clinical research has included several surveys of all patients with LAM and these have provided a clearer picture of how lung function (breathing) tests changes over the years, on the role of early life events in patients with LAM and more detail of the long term progress in patients. These figures and the LAM register will help us to plan studies of treatment in the future. In the laboratory research is focusing on how changes in the two proteins that are abnormal in LAM, tuberin and hamartin, lead to the increased growth of LAM cells. Knowledge of the cellular events involved in LAM has already led to the development of one possible treatment (rapamycin).
These various approaches provide hope that an effective treatment can be found. How long this will take is difficult to say but substantial progress has already been made and we expect this to feed into more effective treatment within the next five to ten years.
