Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has become the first centre in the UK – and the third in Europe – to utilise the cutting-edge LungVision Bronchoscopic Navigation System at Royal Preston Hospital.
The technology has been available for little over a year, with the Trust’s Consultant Respiratory Physician and Interventional Pulmonologist, Professor Mohammed Munavvar, monitoring its progress and applying to Rosemere Cancer Foundation charity for the funding.
Rosemere, which is one of three charities based at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, raised the £237,500 to purchase LungVision, and although two centres in Italy – in Milan and Bologna – became the first in Europe to use the equipment, Professor Munavvar was delighted to be breaking new ground in this country.
He said: “I’m very excited by this, this one machine is the first in the country, and we will provide the service for the whole of Lancashire and South Cumbria.
“I suspect this will spread to other parts of the country, but we are at the forefront to disseminate this information.”
LungVision allows doctors to use a bronchoscope (a thin tube-like instrument with a light and a lens for viewing) to examine inside a patient’s lungs in real time, penetrating deeper and with more accuracy than before.
Lung cancer is responsible for 35,000 UK deaths annually, so to lower statistics early diagnosis is vital, and Professor Munavvar added: “We have been researching the best solution to this challenging situation, and then the generous funding provided to us by Rosemere Cancer Foundation helped acquire this, otherwise it would have been impossible.
“This kit is to make a diagnosis of cancer in the lung, it is focused, very targeted, highly specialised, and very sophisticated. As it stands, you can only get an accurate diagnosis about 50% of the time, but this piece of kit will help us improve the diagnostic yield, the accuracy, to about 85% plus – so a massive advance, truly game-changing.
“Cancer of the lung has an abysmal prognosis, so something like this, I’m confident it will make a difference.”
.jpg)
And he explained how it works: “LungVision essentially reconstructs the CT scan images of lesions which are deep in the lung and are very difficult to otherwise reach to confirm the diagnosis.
“They converge them into images which can be transmitted via a standard C-arm (an advanced medical imaging device based on X-ray technology) to navigate very carefully deep into the lung, and accurately obtain samples from the depth of the lung during a standard bronchoscopic procedure.
“In a way, it is like GPS to get into the difficult to reach parts of say, an inner city – essentially it is like a SatNav, but inside the lung.”
Previously it was more difficult for patients to get an accurate diagnosis and therefore wouldn’t receive the best possible treatment. Now this system is in place, itcan help us very carefully and safely navigate to the depths of the lung.
Dan Hill, Head of Charities, said: “Our aim has always been to ensure cancer patients in Lancashire and South Cumbria have access to truly world class diagnosis and treatment and through the ambition of colleagues such as Professor Munavvar and the loyalty and generosity of our supporters, we are achieving that.
“Already this year, Rosemere Cancer Foundation has provided the funding for Rosemere Cancer Centre at the Royal Preston Hospital to become the UK’s biggest single site Surface Guided Radiotherapy Treatment (SGRT) Centre to provide tattoo-free, enhanced radiotherapy treatment. Now we can claim a UK and almost a European first in delivering LungVision.”
The technology will now be used to see between 2-4 patients a week, with the procedure – which takes approximately an hour – hopefully leading to an accurate diagnosis within a few days.
.jpg)
