City physician, a CF advocate, has seen incredible progress

Dr. Ronald G. Perciaccante has seen much progress in his nearly four decades of treating cystic fibrosis patients in the Watertown area.

In 1971, Dr. Perciaccante helped to establish the cystic fibrosis clinic at Samaritan Medical Center.

"When I first started, the average life span of a cystic fibrosis patient was 15," he said. "Now it's 371/2."

He expects even greater advancements in the treatment of CF if drugs in development continue to hold promise.

Dr. Perciaccante, a semi-retired pediatrician who works part-time at Child & Adolescent Health Associates, attended the 23rd annual North American CF Conference in Minneapolis last month. He said the cystic fibrosis gene was discovered and isolated in 1989.

"That started quite a bit of research," he said.

The gene discovery suggested that cystic fibrosis is a protein deficiency disorder caused by a protein molecule failing to reach the correct place within the cell at the proper time.

Dr. Perciaccante said a new drug is in its third phase of trials and after that it will go to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval.

The drug, Dr. Perciaccante said, will treat the "basic defect" of CF sufferers.

"An analogy would be that it would be like a diabetic taking insulin," Dr. Perciaccante said. "That's a huge breakthrough."

He expects to see the survival age of those with CF continue to rise. "That 371/2 is probably going to get higher, especially if those drugs in clinical trials are effective."

Dr. Perciaccante said about four or five patients attend the monthly clinics at Samaritan for treatment and support.

But the longer CF patients live, Dr. Perciaccante said, the more chances there are for them to develop other diseases.

"At one time, 5 percent of cystic fibrosis patients developed diabetes," he said. "Now it's 16 or 20 percent."

Dr. Perciaccante has seen support for CF patients grow over the years, despite the lack of a local CFF chapter. A north country cystic fibrosis unit of the national CF Foundation was dissolved in 1982. The three north country counties are part of the Central New York chapter, based in Liverpool.

Despite the loss of the local chapter, Dr. Perciaccante said the national Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has been very involved in providing local support.

"On the national level, there was limited support in the beginning," he said. "That has opened up a lot more. They are a very effective national organization."