Q&A: Combining diagnosis, staging, tumor localization and surgery into a minimally invasive procedure for lung cancer
For patients with early-stage lung cancer, the journey from diagnosis to treatment often involves multiple procedures spread across several weeks or even months. During that time, patients may undergo separate biopsies to confirm a diagnosis, additional tests to determine whether the cancer has spread, procedures to help surgeons locate difficult-to-find tumors and, finally, surgery to remove the…
Bryan Burt, MD, professor and chief of thoracic surgery at UCLA Health and Reza Ronaghi, MD, interventional pulmonologist and critical care physician, discuss a new minimally invasive procedure for early-stage lung cancer that combines diagnosis, staging, tumor localization and surgery into a single operating room session. This streamlined approach aims to reduce the time from diagnosis to treatment, improve patient outcomes and enhance the patient experience.
Recent studies have shown that delays between diagnosis and surgery can negatively impact survival rates and increase the likelihood of cancer recurrence. By performing all necessary procedures during one anesthetic event, this approach seeks to shorten the process and alleviate patient anxiety. The process begins with robotic bronchoscopy to biopsy the suspicious lung nodule and endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) to biopsy lymph nodes for staging.
A small marker, called a fiducial, may also be placed to help the surgeon locate the tumor during surgery. If the cancer is confirmed to be early-stage, the surgeon proceeds with robotic resection to remove the tumor. The goal of this new platform is to eliminate unnecessary delays, bring steps together, and potentially reduce the time from diagnosis to treatment to a few hours.
However, this approach is not suitable for all patients and is determined on a case-by-case basis after careful evaluation by the patient's healthcare team.
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