Qureight paper argues for fibrosis extent as imaging biomarker in lung disease trials

pharmafile.com | November 11, 2026 | News story | |  Chronic Diseases, HRCT, biomarkers, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, respiratory illness 

Qureight has published a peer-reviewed paper arguing that the extent of pulmonary fibrosis should be considered the principal structural imaging biomarker in clinical trials of antifibrotic treatments.

The Viewpoint, published in the European Respiratory Journal, makes the case for quantitative high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) to measure fibrosis directly, potentially complementing forced vital capacity (FVC), the current primary endpoint in registrational antifibrotic trials.

FVC measures overall lung function, which can be influenced by factors beyond the extent of fibrosis. Qureight argues that measuring structural changes in the lung could give researchers a more direct indication of whether a treatment is slowing the accumulation of scar tissue.

The paper also identifies fibrosis extent as a candidate for US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) biomarker qualification. However, its authors acknowledge that further evidence would be needed before it could be used as a surrogate endpoint. This would include trial-level data linking treatment-related changes in fibrosis accumulation with improvements in how patients feel and function, or their survival.

Dr Simon Walsh, Qureight’s chief scientific officer and an author of the paper, said quantitative HRCT could reveal structural disease changes that lung-function testing alone might not capture.