NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., December 17, 2019 --- Hoag hopes to turn the tables on
lung cancer by becoming one of select hospitals in the nation, and first in Southern
California, to adopt the Ion robot-assisted bronchoscopy, a technology
that drastically improves accuracy and precision of lung cancer biopsy,
while also providing an improved patient experience.
The Ion robotic-assisted bronchoscopy is the newest technology available
for lung cancer diagnosis and staging, and now at Hoag thanks to philanthropy.
“The current approaches to lung cancer diagnosis have some limitations
that the new Ion technology can better address, such as the ability to
reach peripheral lung nodules. Nearly 70% of lung nodules are detected
in the outside lung periphery. This new technology provides greater stability
to guide a catheter to these outer nodules, paired with superior navigation.
I can view my entire pathway to the nodule as I guide the catheter to
it,” said
Daryl Pearlstein, M.D., program director for lung cancer at
Hoag Family Cancer Institute and a board-certified, subspecialty-trained thoracic surgeon.
During an Ion bronchoscopy, a camera leads the catheter to the nodule,
remaining steady and adjusting with the patient’s breath. And because
it uses robotic technology, rather than a human, to hold in place, the
new technology allows the guiding catheter to remain stable and more still.
In addition to improving access to nodules through stability and navigation,
the adoption of this new technology also means an improved experience
for patients. “If we could not reach the detected nodule, patients
would have to come back for further imaging and biopsy,” continued
Dr. Pearlstein. “Other approaches to obtaining a biopsy could also
result in a collapsed lung. Utilizing Ion, we enter a patient’s
lung in a minimally-invasive fashion, through their mouth into their bronchial
tubes.”
Dr. Pearlstein also predicts that the Ion will play a role in treating
lung cancer, paving the way for a day when many of the estimated 800 lung
cancer patients who come to Hoag each year receive diagnosis, staging
and treatment all in one office visit.
“Once you detect lung cancer, the traditional treatment involves
removing the entire lobe,” he said. “This technology allows
us to mark the nodule with a florescent dye, so we can more easily remove
just the segment of the lung that has cancer. To put it in terms of breast
cancer, it’s like the difference between doing a lumpectomy, rather
than a mastectomy.”
Lung cancer is the second-most common cancer in the U.S. and among the
deadliest. Yet, when detected early, lung cancers can be very treatable.
“In the past, lung cancers were diagnosed at an advance stage, when
the prognosis was poor,” Dr. Pearlstein said. “Now high-risk
individuals are more likely to receive annual CT scans, so more are being
successfully treated for lung cancers at earlier stages. Unfortunately,
there is still often a two- to three-month delay between when a nodule
is noticed on a CT scan and when a diagnosis and determination of a cancer’s
stage could be made.”
This new technology promises to reduce that time considerably, improving
patients’ prognosis and quality of life.
“Hoag has all the latest
treatment modalities for lung cancer: targeted chemotherapy, advanced clinical trials,
Cyberknife, robot-assisted surgery. But you can’t treat a tumor until have a
diagnosis and staging,” Dr. Pearlstein said. “This technology
will allow us to compress the time between detecting a nodule and getting
treated. This is such a benefit to the patients.”
While that day is still off in the future, Dr. Pearlstein noted that the
investment the philanthropic community has made in Hoag brings patients
and their families closer to more effective, efficient lung cancer care.
Only one other hospital in California has this technology, and few in
the nation have the community support that has allowed Hoag to make these
types of advances.
ABOUT HOAG MEMORIAL HOSPITAL PRESBYTERIAN
Hoag is an approximately $1 billion nonprofit, regional health care delivery
network in Orange County, California, that treats more than 30,000 inpatients
and 450,000 outpatients annually. Hoag consists of two acute-care hospitals
– Hoag Hospital Newport Beach, which opened in 1952, and Hoag Hospital
Irvine, which opened in 2010 – in addition to eight health centers
and 11 urgent care centers. Hoag is a designated Magnet® hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). Hoag offers
a comprehensive blend of health care services that includes five institutes
providing specialized services in the following areas:
cancer,
heart and vascular,
neurosciences,
women’s health, and orthopedics through Hoag’s affiliate,
Hoag Orthopedic Institute, which consists of an orthopedic hospital and two ambulatory surgical centers.
Hoag has been named one of the Best Regional Hospitals in the 2019 - 2020
U.S. News & World Report, and
Becker’s Healthcare named Hoag as one of the 2018 “100 Great Hospitals in America”
– a designation Hoag has received five times. For an unprecedented
23 years, residents of Orange County have chosen Hoag as one of the county’s
best hospitals in a local newspaper survey. Visit
www.hoag.org for more information.
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