when a patient gets a lung nodule the biggest concern is that is the nodule cancerous many of these long nodules turn out to be nothing but you can't ignore them.
You can't sit on them you can't wait for those that have lung nodules that end up being a cancer we need to move fairly quickly Fox Chase Cancer Center has a comprehensive lung nodule program where results can be fast-tracked to meet specialists who diagnose and specialists who treat lung nodules a patient comes in with a lung nodule they can be seen by a number of different people they could be seen first by a thoracic surgeon.
They could be seen by a pulmonologist I think we've seen by one of our nurse practitioners they could have a repeat cat scan in a short order to see if the nodule was changing in size or shape they could have a PET scan to see if it's metabolically active or if it's suspicious enough we'll proceed straight to a biopsy so that we don't delay their diagnosis you have a couple of options in terms of how you will approach them to do a biopsy one way is to do a bronchoscopy which involves going down your Airways with a small flexible scope and trying to biopsy or not you from within the other option is for a radiologist to do a needle biopsy from outside the lung these traditional methods though may not be able to reach nodules.
If they're further out in the branches of the lung that's why our pulmonologists have this advanced technology to get to these hard-to-reach nodules so here at Fox Chase for one of the first centers in the nation to have the monarch robotic bronchoscopy platform this allows us to get out into the periphery of the lung with increased dexterity increased visualization to get a more targeted biopsy specimen what it means to me is the next evolution in how we approach these lung nodules you're taking a very small very sophisticated robotic arm and you're navigating through the Airways with direct visualization we've done hundreds of these cases over the past couple of years and doing it in a high-volume Center with a team that has been drilled on these procedures that's where that consistency comes from and that's where we get great success instead of you having to hold the scope with your hand you're now using a remote controller to drive a scope down a patient's Airways.
The first part of how the system works starts with a very simple cat scan we can take those images and we can sync them to the robotic platform so now we've got a roadmap now we've got basically a turn by turn GPS further lung so just with one procedure you're much more likely to get an accurate answer in the first time we can reach nodules that we have not been able to reach before far more deep outand lung as closest to the edge of the lung now in order to decide the best course of treatment the team needs a tissue sample large enough to determine the cancers genetic makeup being able to directly see the nodule gives our physicians the assurance that they're collecting a large enough targeted sample for testing we'll be able to make these cases shorter and make them faster less anesthesia time for the patient less recovery time we find the nodule we biopsy it we look at all of the lymph nodes throughout both lungs so the person has a diagnosis and a stage for their cancer and then they can meet quickly thereafter to decide what to do next having this technology is so important for these lung patients but it's the strong fox chase interventional pulmonology team as well that makes all the difference it's our nurses our respiratory techs or brown Tech's who are helping with all these instruments and all that team effort is why we have great success at fox jays the landscape of interventional pulmonology is changing every day and these technologies they build on previous generations so that we're able to offer our patients and cutting-edge modalities when I think about Fox Chase I think about the years of experience in the departments around me I think about the reproducibility of our biopsy procedures the level of training of our psychologists respiratory therapists endoscopy nurses and that gives us great insight we use the experience of all of our peers to provide the best recommendation and the best treatment plan for patients.
