Against this background, and accentuating the unwritten consensus in pulmonary medicine that “no biomarker other than lung function has been shown to be useful, to date, for the diagnosis of COPD” [21], the present study, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, demonstrates that lnc-IL7R expression level (i) is associated with physiological pulmonary function, (ii) correlates with COPD status and emphysematous phenotype, and (iii) exhibits diagnostic relevance for COPD-based patient stratification. The gene discussed is IL7R; the disease is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.