Health care professionals at Peoria's Carle Health Methodist Hospital are calling an advanced procedure for detecting lung cancer “a game-changer.”
Dr. Ahmed Agameya, a pulmonologist at Methodist, says the use of an ION Robotic Assisted Bronchoscopy makes it easier to diagnose lung cancer at an earlier stage.
“It enables us to do biopsies in certain areas of the lung, where if you see a spot in a patient's lung that is concerning for cancer but it's too small for a regular bronchoscopy is to reach, you can actually reach it with this technology,” Agameya said. “You can get a piece of that nodule or the tumor, and tell the patient whether this is cancer or not, tell the patient whether this is a benign condition or not.”
Agameya said Methodist was one of the first hospitals in the country to get this robotic procedure, and that he’s used it on more than 100 patients since the end of 2021.
“Our diagnostic yield, which is what we call the diagnostic accuracy, is around 95%, which is much, much higher than any other bronchoscopic or similar technology,” he said.
Amy Hill, Methodist’s Director of Surgical Services, says this procedure allows doctors to access the periphery of the lung and find smaller nodules that are hard to reach.
“It's a faster pathway to treatment with less procedures. You're able to get that diagnosis quicker, and then treatment quicker,” Hill said. “It essentially keeps it from progressing as quickly, so the faster we can get the diagnosis and the treatment, the better off the patient will be.”
Agameya said traditionally, lung biopsies have been done surgically or by a percutaneous biopsy using a needle. But he said there are clear drawbacks to both options.
“A percutaneous biopsy with a needle through the skin is usually accurate. But we usually try to avoid that unless we have a very high suspicion, because of the high risk for complications,” he said. “Same thing with surgically removing nodules that are suspicious: We usually don't do that, because it's a big surgery that we try to avoid. But this technology helps us get to the answer without really putting the patient at an increased risk.”
Agameya says the ION Robotic Assisted Bronchoscopy works by providing technology and software that assists in maneuvering a camera inside a patient’s lung.
“If we're imagining a regular bronchoscope or a regular camera, I'm using my own understanding of where the lesion is, and trying to get down to that area with the camera,” he said. “Whereas here, the software draws a map for me and it shows to me like where exactly I have to go, where I have to navigate – whether I should take a left, whether I should take a right. It does it in a very good way that makes it very user friendly and enables me to reach the areas that I need to reach in a much shorter time and with much higher accuracy.”
The American Cancer Society's latest annual report projects more than 125,000 lung cancer deaths in the U.S. this year, with more than 80% being a direct result of cigarette smoking.
While the Peoria City/County Health Department’s annual mortality report for 2022 is expected to be released in March, the 2021 data shows cancer was the second-leading cause of death, with lung cancer accounting for 26% of those cancer deaths.
“The trends are going up; the rate of lung cancer is really increasing across the nation, and partially it's because we're detecting more of it, too, because now we're implementing lung cancer screening where patients who are at risk for lung cancer are now getting a screening every year,” Agameya said. “So we're detecting it more. But the main issue that we're having with lung cancer is that it gets diagnosed at a very late stage.
“A lot of the patients come in when they're already having significant symptoms – either they're losing weight or coughing up blood, and they’re at a really advanced stage. What we're trying to do with this technology and with the lung cancer screening, is detecting the cancer as soon as it's just a small spot like the size of a Cheerio in your lung. At that point, we can get rid of it completely and you would not have to worry about spreading, you will not have to worry about long-term complications.”
