Patient Successfully Treated for Three Lung Cancer Incidences over 8-Year Span at Hackensack University Medical Center

Robotic surgery, Ion bronchoscopy, radiation and early detection in follow-up engaged in multimodal treatment strategy

A recent patient case including three separate lung cancers over an 8-year period at Hackensack University Medical Center demonstrates the importance of follow-up in lung cancer patients, and the value of expertise in multiple treatment modes.

The female patient’s initial cancer was removed via traditional surgical lobectomy by Hackensack University Medical Center thoracic surgeon Nabil P. Rizk, M.D.

Patients are followed closely after an initial lung cancer because they remain at higher risk of other cancers. In this case, follow-up imaging detected a second unrelated cancer several years after the first one. This lesion was removed in a robotically assisted, minimally invasive approach.

Physicians continued follow-up, and within eight years of the initial cancer detection, spotted a third independent cancer. They performed endobronchial ultrasound to see if this cancer had spread to nearby lymph nodes, and it had not.

They then used Ion Bronchoscopy with real-time CT scan imaging to perform a biopsy on the lesion. Because significant lung tissue had been removed in the previous resections and the cancer had not spread to lymph nodes, high-dose radiation was the determined treatment course.

During the biopsy, the Ion bronchoscopy system along with real-time CT imaging guidance allowed precision location of the lesion moment to moment and for biopsy accuracy and proper placement of fiducials to later direct radiation delivery.

Radiation successfully treated the third cancer. Initial image detection to radiation treatment occurred in a matter of a couple of weeks, thanks to technology efficiency and multidisciplinary care.

Learn more about innovative pulmonology and thoracic surgery care at Hackensack University Medical Center.