A new study has found that gene therapy has stabilized and even slightly improved cystic fibrosis for patients based on a trial of 136 sufferers of the disease.

The study, published in Lancet Respiratory Medicine, has found that the lungs of these patients did not decline after inhaling healthy copes of genes that cause cystic fibrosis once a month over the course of a year, according to a BBC report.

In fact, lungs showed a 3 percent improvement in severe cases. Meanwhile, those who did not take the gene therapy actually saw their lungs worsen by an average of 3 to 4 percent over the same period of time.

It’s a modest change, and it’s not ready for this type of therapy to be used as regular medical practice just yet. Scientists will need to take more time to study the effects and determine if this is truly an effective treatment.

Cystic fibrosis tends to be genetically inherited and it is usually due to a faulty gene that results in the buildup of mucus, resulting in infections in the nose, lungs, and throat. Patients who have the disease have a life expectancy of just 41 years of age.

Cystic fibrosis is the most commonly diagnosed genetic disease, and about 70,000 people worldwide suffer from it. To combat it, patients have to take lots of antibiotics and undergo physiotherapy.

This new gene therapy technique, which involves inhaling vapor that contains liposomes laced with healthy DNA, could offer some promise for those hoping to extend their lives and reduce their suffering from this disease. It often results in needing a lung transplant at some point, and this gene therapy could push that out by a factor of years, if not decades.