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Lung cancer is one of the leading cancer killers
in this country.
But in tonight's Health Alert, a new piece of
equipment is making it less invasive for doctors
to diagnose, treat and hopefully destroy hard
to reach tumors.
I was in for my breathing and they took a CT scan
and then they saw the, ah, something in my lung.
Thirty-five years of smoking have taken their toll on
George Vanagas.
This 78-year-old Korean War Vet has emphysema and
one known lung cancer tumor.
Now there's a second suspicious spot deep inside
one of the small airways that branch out inside
George's lungs.
With traditional bronchoscope we’re limited
by the size of the airways.
We can't get beyond certain segments of the airways.
Dr. Eric Anderson is an
Interventional Pulmonologist at Georgetown University
Hospital who's using a new technology to get a
better look inside patient's lungs.
You're going to see us go all the way down inside
the lungs.
Super Dimension or Super-D is an electromagnetic
tracking system, or GPS for the lungs.
It's used with a traditional bronchoscope to biopsy
hard to reach nodules or masses.
Patient's undergo a CT scan with very high
resolution cuts.
We take those images and put them into the computer
software and then generate a virtual bronchoscope;
a virtual bronchoscopy of the airway so that we
can see where to go.
We then plan where the nodule is that we're going
after.
Once doctors get to that hard to reach mass, they
can perform a biopsy to see if it really is cancer.
In George's case, they're also placing tiny gold
markers that will guide a radiation treatment called
CyberKnife.
It's George's best shot at cancer fighting treatment
given his heart disease and emphysema.
When they go back with the CyberKnife now, we'll
be able to see where the tumor is while we're
treating the patient.
So, one of the big risks with lung cancer treatment
is that with the already fragile health of some
of the patient's like George, the lungs can
collapse.
Using the Super-D Navigation System cuts down that risk
a lot and it's one of the reasons George's doctors
referred him to Georgetown.
Thanks for joining us for 9News Now at 5.
9 News Now at 6 starts right now.