New lung cancer technology gives BMH doctors hope of quicker diagnoses
Saturday, Aug. 1, is World Lung Cancer Day. In America, lung cancer kills more people each year than breast, prostate and colorectal cancers combined.
According to the American Cancer Society, lung cancer makes up roughly 1 in 5 cancer-related deaths worldwide.
The sheer numbers underscore why massive amounts of money and research are being poured into helping facilities nationwide — such as Butler Memorial Hospital — better treat lung cancer and diagnose it at earlier stages.
Butler Memorial Hospital officials spent Friday, July 31, testing and practicing with the newest generation of the MONARCH platform, a bronchoscopy system meant to help physicians reach and biopsy small, difficult-to-access lung nodules.
With a tiny camera connected to the robot-assisted system, the new technology could save lives by finding cancer early on, doctors said.
“That helps us plant a pathway, almost like a GPS. It helps us get into the general direction of where we need to go; and then the controls allow us to adjust the actual scope, to make fine movements,” said Dr. Michael Apostolis, a critical care and internal medicine physician with Independence Health System. “We can get all the way out to the edge of the lung, which is smaller than three millimeters.”
The MONARCH system was developed by Johnson & Johnson, the multinational pharmaceutical and medical technology corporation.
The system’s enhanced visualization allows doctors to search in areas of the lung that would have been “pretty much a crapshoot if you’re there or not,” Apostolis said.
It allows doctors to maneuver through smaller airwaves with greater accuracy to do biopsies.
“We can diagnose things as small as a peanut or a blueberry with accuracy to say if someone does or doesn’t have lung cancer. That allows us to further move them through our physician network to get into surgery, to have better outcomes,” Apostolis said.
The newly upgraded system is already making a difference. Apostolis said he’s had seven cases in the past month where the cancer was “the size of a thumbnail” and those patients were able to get into surgery for removal.
In addition to the updated software, the remote doctors use is modeled after an Xbox controller, simplifying the complex technology.
“It’s been in development for some time. It came out in 2018, and there’s been several iterations of it. A lot has gone into this,” said Alison Stagner of Johnson & Johnson. “The things our engineers do impress me every day. This type of technology changes lives.”
In materials with information about MONARCH provided by Johnson & Johnson and Independence Health System, they cited data indicating over 50% of lung cancers are diagnosed in later stages.
Samantha Clark of BMH’s advanced lung center hopes technology like MONARCH can change the trend.
“It drastically increases the lifespan of a patient if we catch it early on. The advanced technology also allows us to be more precise and exact in locating the lung nodules so there are better outcomes for patients,” Clark said.
