Lung cancer is the most important cancer killer of grownup males and women worldwide. One of the explanations is that by the point signs develop, the cancer is just too superior for a treatment.
The objective of lung cancer screening is to detect cancer at an earlier stage and save extra lives. Smoking is the No. 1 reason for lung cancer, and it is really helpful that anybody over 55 who has a major historical past of smoking, even when they now not smoke, needs to be screened.
Lung cancer screening, for these eligible, needs to be achieved yearly, and it entails a low-dose CT scan of the lungs. Dr. Janani Reisenauer, a thoracic surgeon and interventional pulmonologist, says Mayo Clinic is likely one of the pioneers in utilizing new know-how to battle the illness.
Watch: Innovation in lung cancer screening, treatment
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A lung nodule or lesion is an abnormality revealed on a CT scan that appears like a cancer. And to seek out out whether it is cancer, docs could advocate a way known as bronchoscopy.
“Very much like having a colonoscopy carried out the place any person is holding a scope. They’re twisting the dials on that scope as they’re maneuvering that scope by your airway or by your intestines for instance,” says Dr. Reisenauer.
That’s a standard handbook bronchoscopy. Dr. Reisenauer says Mayo Clinic is one in all solely a handful of medical facilities accredited by the Food and Drug Administration to make use of robotic bronchoscopy.
“I would think about robotic bronchoscopy as a remote-controlled car. It doesn’t go anywhere without you driving it and telling it where to go. But rather than me holding a scope that’s maneuvered through a patient, the scope is docked to a robotic instrument,” says Dr. Reisenauer.
Offering extra precision, flexibility and management than a standard bronchoscopy. She says it improves the power to not solely diagnose lung cancer, however now, in some circumstances, deal with it.
“Mayo Clinic is participating in many cancer trials now, where we are treating lung nodules with a variety of ablative mechanisms. So we’re either using extreme heat or cold, or even in some cases electricity. Or viruses injecting into tumors to try to reduce tumor burden or kill tumors,” says Dr. Reisenauer.
