Patients at Owensboro Health Regional Hospital now benefit from a same-day procedure to
diagnose and treat lung cancer using robot-assisted technology with the Ion endoluminal
system using robotic bronchoscopy.
Biopsies involve removing a tiny piece of tissue from the suspicious area and are typically
performed to diagnose lung issues such as cancer. The biopsy can usually determine whether
nodules or masses are malignant (cancerous) or benign (noncancerous).
Robotic bronchoscopy uses an ultra-thin, flexible tube with a camera, going in the nose or
mouth and through narrow airways in the lung to the lesion. The catheter can move 180
degrees in all directions and can navigate through the lungs to reach nodules in any airway
Segment.
Once the nodule is reached, the catheter is locked into place, and a needle collects tissue from
the mass or nodule. The outpatient procedure, performed under general anesthesia, takes one
to two hours. Patients usually go home the same day with some soreness or numbness in the
mouth and throat.
The robotic approach is also beneficial for those with other health concerns, such as severe
lung disease or active smoking, both of which can increase infection risk or other rare
complications associated with more traditional biopsy options.
“The point of lung cancer screening is to take patients at high risk of developing
lung cancer — based on smoking history or family history — and screen them to catch lung
cancer as early as possible. Stage one and two cancers are much easier to treat and have
much better outcomes than advanced-stage lung cancers,” said Owensboro Health pulmonologist Brad Brasher.
Brasher added that having the robotic bronchoscopy allows them to use smaller scopes and go further into the lung, near the periphery, and biopsy much smaller nodules.
“When we find these tiny nodules on your lung cancer screening CT that could potentially be cancer, instead of waiting for those to become large enough to biopsy or do more invasive procedures like CT-guided biopsy, that have a higher complication rate,” he said. “We can now use this technology to biopsy earlier and diagnose more early-stage lung cancer, which is more easily curable with surgery, without putting the patient through chemotherapy.”
Owensboro Health said lung cancer is the leading cause of death among men and women in the United States, with no symptoms in the early and most curable stages. With early detection and prompt surgical treatment, the cure rate is 92 percent.
An annual lung CT screening test using a low radiation dose can detect the cancer
when it’s small. The non-invasive screening is recommended for those most at risk for lung
cancer: those over the age of 50 who have smoked, those who once smoked heavily but quit, those with a history of lung cancer, and those with risk factors such as exposure to asbestos or
who have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Owensboro Health has partnered with Ion’s maker previously. Intuitive makes ion — the
company that makes the da Vinci surgical system — and is built on more than two decades of
leadership in robot-assisted technology. Owensboro Health Regional Hospital and Owensboro
Health Muhlenberg Community Hospital has da Vinci robotic surgical systems for minimally
invasive surgical procedures.
For more information about this new technology, consult a primary care provider or visit OwensboroHealth.org.
