John A. Mackintosh, Daniel C. Chambers
European Respiratory Journal 2024 63: 2301806; DOI: 10.1183/13993003.01806-2023
We write to congratulate Zhang et al. [1] on another fascinating manuscript which expands the narrative on telomeres and their relevance to fibrotic interstitial lung disease (ILD). Yet again, telomere length is shown to be fundamental to a person's outcome and their response to treatment, albeit an adverse response to immunosuppression, mirroring the authors’ previous post hoc analysis of the PANTHER-IPF data [2]. However, as in previous manuscripts [3, 4], the authors consider telomere length as a variable that modulates outcome in an individual with a correctly diagnosed ILD, rather than a parameter which might instead inform the diagnosis.
It is now time to include telomere length as a fundamental component of interstitial lung disease taxonomy https://bit.ly/3GcUPaJ
Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest related to the content of this letter.