Advanced Lung Cancer Diagnostic Services

Lung cancer is the second most common cancer in both men and women. Most often, lung cancer is diagnosed when symptoms are present. At this point, the cancer is at an advanced stage with a five-year survival rate of only 15 percent or less. Each year, more people die from lung cancer than of colon, breast and prostate cancers combined. Finding lung cancer early dramatically improves survival rates.

With the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recent adoption of lung cancer screenings for high-risk individuals, suspicious lung nodules can now be detected at their earliest state. This makes it especially critical to provide minimally invasive diagnostic options to diagnose any abnormalities found on the screening exam so patients can receive needed treatment sooner and have better chances of long-term survival.

Committed to providing the best possible outcome to you, Lima Memorial Health System now offers the most advanced technology for diagnosing lung cancer in a minimally invasive approach.

superDimension™ Navigation System & EBUS Technology

The superDimension™ navigation system allows for a minimally-invasive procedure that enables physicians to look deeper and farther into very narrow and peripheral lung areas than previously possible. Similar to GPS (Global Positioning System) technology, electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy (ENB) creates a three-dimensional virtual “roadmap” of the lungs from the patient’s CT-scan. This enables the physician to navigate a unique set of catheters to the outer most areas of the lungs, reaching previously unreachable lung nodules for diagnosis and treatment. A lung nodule is an area of abnormal tissue that can either be benign or malignant.

Endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) technology produces precise, three-dimensional imaging for detecting lung cancer. Through a minimally invasive technique, EBUS allows a physician to access a patient’s lymph nodes and determine if lung cancer is present and has spread to other parts of the body. Using a combination of ultrasound guidance with bronchoscopy, a real-time transbronchial needle aspiration is performed. This combination aids in the diagnosis and staging of lung cancer. Using EBUS, biopsies are performed through the trachea using ultrasound rather than surgical incisions that must be made in other, more invasive procedures.

This revolutionary technology is a significant advancement for aiding in the diagnosis of lung cancer and overcomes limitations of traditional diagnostic approaches, including bronchoscopy, needle biopsy and surgery.

If you think you might be at risk for lung cancer, talk to your primary care provider about a lung cancer screening. A simple test could save your life. To learn more click here.

For more information, call 419-227-7378.

This innovative diagnostic lung cancer technology was made possible through community support to the Lima Memorial Foundation. Please consider making a gift to the Foundation to bring future advancements to our region. Click below to find out how.