Do frequent moderate exacerbations contribute to progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in patients who are ex-smokers?
Our results suggest that frequent moderate exacerbations do not contribute to accelerated clinical and functional decline in COPD patients who are ex-smokers.
The findings highlight the usefulness of combining gene expression patterns and epigenetic data to identify tumour biomarkers, and suggest that NDRG2 silencing might bear influence on tumour invasiveness, being associated with a more advanced stage.