The University of Kentucky’s Markey Cancer Center is showing off new surgical equipment that allows some early-stage lung cancers to be diagnosed and even treated the same day. The robotic technology was inside their Thoracic Oncology Mobile Experience semi-truck at Kroger Field Monday. Dr. Shari Meyerson is a UK professor and chief of thoracic surgery.
“We use this ion robotic bronchoscope, and we use that with two different types of biopsies. We can either take a piece of it and grab it, or we can use a little what's called a cryoprobe. It makes a little ball of ice at the tip that sticks to the tumor and then helps us yank a piece out.”
Meyerson said the procedure is ideal for early-stage lung cancers.
Last December, Lisa Buede became one of the people the Markey folks are looking for. She said she’d smoked for 45 years and went to UK after a lung scan and a follow-up that looked more suspicious.
“They will have pathology there when they biopsy you and if they do find something, then you go ahead and have the surgery, and it is caught and detected so early that you don't have time to have anxiety or to get scared.”
Buede said she’s now cancer- and smoke-free, having had her last cigarette the day of her diagnosis and treatment. Markey Cancer Center staff are also stressing the importance of lung scans. Amy Steinkuhl is a cancer control specialist for the Kentucky Cancer Program.
“We want to ensure that folks know that they should be checking with their doctors if they are current or past smokers. To qualify for a lung cancer screening, they have to be between the ages of 50 and 80. They would have had to have smoked at least a pack a day for 20 years and haven't quit for more than 15.”
Steinkuhl said these people don’t have to quit for the free screening, which was made possible by a state law they lobbied for.
