Aspetti clinici ed epidemiologici delle interstiziopatie polmonari nella popolazione femminile

The role of sex or gender in physiological function, disease and response to treatment is gradually being explored and there are differences between the sexes, either based on biological differences (sex related) or based on so-ciocultural differences (gender related). Interstitial Lung Diseases (ILD) affect both women and men. However, the purpose of this review is to explore the territory of ILD specifically in women; in particular, ILDs will be discussed with specific importance in women to distinguish diseases specific of the female gender and not observed in males (such as lymphangioleiomyomatosis), disorders with clear female predominance resulting from the underlying dis-ease or cause (such as ILD related to breast cancer or its treatment, or ILD associated with connective tissue dis-eases) and idiopathic ILDs which predominate in women (such as idiopathic non-specific interstitial pneumonia)