Innovative GPS-Guided Devices Helping to Treat Lung Cancer
26 Dec 2013Doctors in Melbourne utilize new GPS technology for locating and treating lung cancer.
According to the National Institutes of Health, lung cancer is one of the most deadly types of cancers, killing more Americans from the disease than colon cancer, breast cancer and prostate cancer combined. Much of this is due to the significant damage surgery causes when attempting to remove the cancer sites in the lungs.
In Australia, doctors have discovered a new way of finding and removing small lesions in the lung; lesions that were previously untreatable. They are the first to use GPS-guided devices as a way of treating lung cancer for their patient, giving them a chance at a long and cancer-free life.
The GPS- guided device provides a minimally invasive procedure as the GPS unit helps detect and locate the lesions within the lung and aid at removing them. The patients were previously diagnosed with lung cancer, but doctors weren’t able to find and remove them safely.
GPS is being used alongside other advanced technologies for treating lung cancer, including traditional bronchoscopy, computed tomography (CT) and guided needle biopsy.
Two medical trials were completed in Melbourne at the Peter MacCallum Cancer centre and the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Cancer patients at these two medical centers were selected as they had lung cancer that were not treatable and were looking for a surgery-free treatment option.
One such patient was Shirley Young who two years prior had a right lung and two ribs removed from a tumor. A year later, another lesion was spotted on her left lung and she was told it couldn’t be treated with radiotherapy due to the significant loss of lung tissue. She was in the first trial at Royal Melbourne Hospital, where the GPS-guided device located the lesion, inserted a small rod into her tumor and removed it. Prior to using the GPS device, CT scans allowed a roadmap of her lung to be created which helped the GPS guide the rod to the tumor site.
This procedure and others like it are minimally invasive so they help to save more of the valuable lung tissue. Many lung cancer patients, like Young, are denied treatment because it would do more harm than good. The GPS trial is part of a medical trial of intense radiotherapy over two weeks rather than the standard radiotherapy given over two months would be effective at treating lung cancer without surgery.
“To be in a position where a patient can undergo a second lot of curative treatment is an unusual situation, and very heartening.” Said Associate Professor Irving of Royal Melbourne Hospital who was heading the trial.
Young was more than happy to be one of their first trial patients. “Doctors told me the cancer would just spread elsewhere otherwise, but they say this will get it,” she said. “That’s keeping me hopeful, for me and for other patients.”
GPS technology will not only help in locating and removing lesions, but in diagnosing lung cancer early. The medical trials are expected to be completed soon and hopefully the technology will reach hospitals around the globe to help treat lung cancer.
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