Outcomes for children with cystic fibrosis have been getting steadily better over the years. In order to understand early CF in this new era of improving outcomes, we need to conduct a long-term study in a large number of very young children with CF at different locations and follow them over many years. This study, starting in Autumn 2023 is called ENHANCE (Establishing Natural History in an Advanced New CF Care Era).

ENHANCE will take place initially over five years in 13 different children’s CF centres in Ireland and the UK. At each CF Centre, a lead consultant will coordinate the study locally. There will be three groups of children in the study: Firstly, a group of children that we recruit from diagnosis at new-born screening, secondly, a group of children who are already diagnosed with CF, attending one of the centres and are less than six years of age, and thirdly a group of children do not have cystic fibrosis.

The design of the study was supported by people with CF and parents of children with CF, through our PPI group supported by CF Ireland and the CF Trust. The CF Registry in Ireland and the UK are key partners in the study.

The study is coordinated through centres in Dublin and London, with the core study team based at Children’s Health Ireland and RCSI, both in Dublin. To learn more about the teams, view our Meet The Teams page here.

ENHANCE will help us to understand much that we currently do not know about how children live with CF through childhood. Research studies can be time consuming for children and their parents. To minimise the burden on families, were only going to collect data once a year around the time of the annual assessment. To find more about the test involved click here.