Multiple cytokines play a role in the orchestration of inflammation in inflammatory airway diseases, such as COPD, through the recruitment, activation and survival of inflammatory cells. Lymphokines secreted from T-cells regulate the pattern of inflammation, whereas proinflammatory cytokines amplify and perpetuate the inflammatory response. Multiple chemokines recruit inflammatory cells from the circulation into the lungs and many growth factors maintain this inflammation and lead to characteristic structural changes in the airways. There are several therapeutic approaches that target cytokine-mediated inflammation in COPD, but blocking specific cytokines may not provide clinical benefit, whereas broad-spectrum anti-inflammatory approaches are more likely to be of clinically effective.