COVER STORY
A One-Two Punch: Battling Lung Cancer with Cutting-Edge Technology at UPMC Passavant A new robotic device — the first in southwestern Pennsylvania — allows doctors at UPMC Passavant–McCandless to navigate deep inside the lungs for earlier, more precise detection of cancer. Now a top user of this minimally invasive technology, the hospital is combining it with low-dose CT screenings to punch back at the nation’s number one cancer killer.
K
athy Trent considers herself lucky. The lifelong smoker was among the first high-risk patients to begin yearly low-dose computed tomography (CT) lung cancer screenings at UPMC Passavant. Now, five years later, she’s among the first to benefit from the hospital’s Monarch™ robotic bronchoscopy system — deemed an innovative tool in the fight against lung Kathy Trent cancer. “This technology and the wonderful doctors at UPMC Passavant saved my life,” says Kathy, 69. “They caught my lung cancer early before I felt any symptoms.”
Early Diagnosis: The Key to Survival
More than half of all lung cancer patients die within one year of diagnosis. But when cancer is detected early — especially before it has a chance to spread beyond the lungs — the five-year survival rate rises from 5% to 56%. “Early diagnosis is critical,” says Ryan Levy, MD, chief of thoracic surgery at UPMC Passavant and thoracic surgeon with UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. “When lung cancer is
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detected at an earlier stage, we’re able to offer our patients more treatment options—meaning patients have better outcomes and increased cancer-free rates.” UPMC Passavant is among the first hospitals in the nation and the first in Pittsburgh to use the robotic bronchoscopy system. The device allows doctors to maneuver into the lung’s tiniest passages to inspect suspicious lesions and collect tissue samples to determine whether they are cancerous or benign. “It takes us to a whole new level of cancer diagnosis and treatment,” says Dr. Levy.
Finding Cancer’s “Fingerprint”
Since robotic bronchoscopy was introduced in May 2020, specially trained pulmonologists and thoracic surgeons at UPMC Passavant have performed nearly 100 diagnostic procedures. Patients from across the state have been referred to the program making UPMC Passavant one of the busiest hospitals in the nation to use the device. UPMC pulmonologist Peter Kochupura, MD, says the system’s “brilliant” design uses a minimally invasive endoscope to view deep inside the lungs.
