JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — November is National Lung Cancer Awareness month, and local surgeons host live demonstrations of a state-of-the-art robotic scope that can travel farther into the lungs to take samples of potential tumors.
HCA Florida Memorial Hospital, located off University Boulevard, set up a user-friendly test drive of the Robotic-Assisted Bronchoscopy, known as RAB in the main lobby for doctors, patients and the community to learn more about.
Robotics consultant Chad Thomsen says the new scope has three added benefits for both patients and surgeons.
“Robotics gives you essentially three pillars - reach, vision, and control,” He says. “You’re able to reach further in the lung than you ever could before, where early-stage cancers are primarily at. You’re able to have vision throughout the intervention wherein previous bronchoscopies you would lose vision, and you would be completely blind and now you’re able to have control with the robot and able to make micro adjustments that didn’t exist before.”
I spoke with Pulmonologist, surgeon and critical care specialist, Dr. Amit Chakravarty, who says lung cancer is one of leading causes of death in the United States and that’s why early detection is so important.
“The size of the scope is much smaller - we’re talking about a few millimeters,” Dr. Chakravarty says. “The whole tubing is very flexible, and you have a very high-definition camera at the end with a bright light so you have a direct vision as you’re traveling through the air passages.”
The robotic scope helps the surgeon reach any masses growing in the lungs with what Dr. Chakravarty describes as a GPS navigation, with set destinations programmed into the surgeon’s chosen route as a blue line, much like drivers traveling from highways onto boulevards and then onto narrow alleyways.
When I test drove the RAB for myself, the controller fit into my hands just like an Xbox controller with two joysticks controlling the direction and angle of the bronchoscope’s head.
The shoulder buttons, where the L1 or R1 are typically placed on the Xbox controller is where the surgeon can use the bronchoscope to deliver specialized tools through the tubing to take samples of lung tissue.
The three primary tools used by surgeons like Dr. Chakravarty are forceps, needles, and a brush that can help gather extra cells for testing - all within air canals a few millimeters wide.
The bridge between modern medicine and gaming systems makes surgeries more accessible as well as more effective, according to robotics consultant Thomsen.
“Historically, diagnostic yields were 50 to sub-50 percent in traditional bronchoscopy,” he says. “We’re looking at 80-plus percent now with robotic bronchoscopy, which is tremendous stage-shift in patient care in improving diagnosis. What that does at the end of the day is it allows us to diagnose cancer at an earlier stage and allows the patients to get therapy, whether it’s surgery, chemo, radiation much faster.”
Dr. Chakravarty encourages the community to get screened for lung cancer as early as possible.
“It’s very important for people to understand that there are screening tests, screening tools that is approved by Medicare,” he says. “Especially people who are smokers, or above the age 50-55. We have a lot to offer the patients.”