How TMH Detects and Diagnoses Lung Cancer Early Using Navigational Bronchoscopy
November 10, 2022
By: Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare
Categories: Healthy Living
November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month and Carlos Campo, MD, pulmonologist with Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare (TMH) shares some insight into the deadly disease and how TMH can detect and diagnose even the smallest lung cancer lesions very early – increasing a patient’s chances of surviving lung cancer.
Here’s what Dr. Campo had to say.
What’s something we may not know about lung cancer?
Lung cancer is the third leading cause of death in both men and women. Prostate, breast and colon cancers are more common, but lung cancer is the number one killer as it pertains to cancer deaths. It became the number one killer for men in 1956 and the number one killer for women in 1985. Many times, you don’t have symptoms of lung cancer until it has grown or metastasized.
What are the risk factors and symptoms for lung cancer?
One of the biggest risk factors for lung cancer is smoking, and many times some of the symptoms of smoking are also symptoms of another condition called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It’s the same for lung cancer. This includes symptoms such as coughing and shortness of breath. So, there’s a lot of overlapping symptoms, but there’s not one specific symptom that is unique to lung cancer.
What does TMH do to diagnose lung cancer as early as possible?
Here at TMH, along with our early detection program, we also have technology called navigational bronchoscopy, which is a method we use to make a lung cancer diagnosis. Through our navigational bronchoscopy equipment, we’re able to get to lesions that are much smaller and would have been nearly impossible to get to with a regular bronchoscope.
The system we have is called the Veran System. We acquired it in the summer of 2019 and we have several physicians who use this procedure, not to just make the early detection of lung cancer, but an early diagnosis.
If you suspect symptoms of lung cancer, such as frequent coughing, shortness of breath, wheezing, coughing up blood or chest pain, you should speak with your primary care provider right away.
The Tallahassee Memorial Thoracic Oncology Clinic is the region’s only multidisciplinary collaborative care team that aims to expedite care for patients with suspected lung cancer or other thoracic cancers. Learn more about our thoracic oncology clinic at TMH.ORG/LungCancer.
