Our hope
that the use of Ion robotic bronchoscopy is going to allow us
to detect early stage lung cancers,
lung cancers that may be curable at these earliest stages.
In the past,
we may not have even been able to go try to biopsies because they're too small.
Now we have the possibility of more accurately biopsy nodules
that are less than two centimeters and an almost a third of our patients.
We've gone after nodules that are less than one centimeter.
This is the game changer that we've been waiting for the ability
to biopsy spots that are less than one centimeter.
If we can diagnose a spot that's one centimeter
and send them to surgery, they have a chance of cure of 90%.
We need to have more patients show up earlier detection with lung cancer
screening and use technologies such as the Ion robot
to biopsy this peripheral nodule to get a diagnosis
when it matters, when it's small before it has spread to somewhere else.
The Ion robot is a unique
tool for MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
We were one of the first sites in the United States to have
this commercially available to us for a better chance
of getting a diagnosis of a peripheral lung nodule.
The Ion Robot is a fancy bronchoscopy
where the robot is placed to push the scope through the airway.
The bronchoscopy s will guide the bronchoscopy
through the airway, using a mouse pad with a trackball on it.
Much like the video games you used in the past.
Here we're using it for medical purposes
to make a more accurate pathway to get to the target in the lung. Lung
nodules can show up anywhere in the lungs.
And it's a challenge in some time to get close to the nodules through the airways.
The ion robot provides several advances
that allow us to more accurately biopsy spots in the lung.