Prior to the 1950s, children with the most common and most serious forms of cystic fibrosis rarely lived past age 5. In the 1950s and 1960s pancreatic enzymes, airway clearance techniques, and antistaphylococcal antibiotics were introduced as treatments and CF life expectancy began to increase.

In the 1960s, average life expectancy grew to age 15 as antipseudomonal antibiotics were added to the treatment arsenal. Also, the first woman known to have CF had a successful pregnancy. Between the 1970s and 1990s, life expectancy gradually increased to age 31, thanks to still more treatments, including lung transplants and DNase.

Then, between 1993 and 2017, median life expectancy leapt to age 44. This means that among those born with CF in the U.S. between 2013 and 2017, half are predicted to live to age 44 or more.

According to the CFF’s Patient Registry, children with CF grow up to lead full, productive lives despite their disease. In 2017, the registry found that:

• 51 percent of adults with CF work in full- or part-time jobs
• 42 percent of adults with CF are married or living together
• 31 percent of adults with CF earned a college degree

Thanks to advances in DNA testing, doctors are identifying more and more people with CF for the first time well into their 50s, 60s, and 70s.

The oldest person diagnosed with CF for the first time in the U.S. was 82, in Ireland was 76, and in the United Kingdom was 79.

Lung transplantation is a process in which you and the family and friends who make up your social support team will need to make thoughtful decisions throughout many phases. These decisions will affect you and your social support team medically, logistically, financially, socially, and emotionally. Starting the conversation early will give you more time to plan ahead by:

• Getting the help you need to work on anything that could prevent you from being a candidate for transplant.
• Making it easier for you and your family to make informed decisions.
• Securing the necessary financial resources while you are still well enough to do so.

Know this:

Does a lung transplant cure cystic fibrosis? No. Cystic fibrosis is a genetic condition so even though the transplanted lungs will not have CF and will never develop it, the rest of the person’s body will continue to have cystic fibrosis.

People can live for 5, 10, or even 20 years after having one. About 87 percent of CF patients who receive lung transplants will live another year. Close to 50 percent of those who receive a lung transplant will survive for an extra 9 years says cysticfibrosis.com.