The Robert Koch Clinic, as the Department of Internal Medicine V in Homburg is known, is a specialist centre for the treatment of pulmonary and allergic disorders and the only such centre at a university hospital in Germany. The therapeutic options offered by the department range from the treatment of asthma, resurgent tuberculosis and all forms of bronchogenic carcinomas to long-term artificial respiration and lung transplants performed in collaboration with the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. Another significant area of therapeutic activity is the treatment of cystic fibrosis where we work with the Departments of Paediatric and Juvenile Medicine. Cystic fibrosis research at the department is concerned with the long-term medical supervision of adult patients. Other areas of research are the early detection of lung cancer, which remains the commonest form of malignant neoplasm in men and is becoming increasingly common among women of all ages, pulmonary hypertension and bronchial asthma.