More people die from lung cancer in the U.S. than from any other form of cancer. A new procedure is helping doctors at North Central Baptist Hospital find and diagnose lung cancer earlier, which can improve survival rates.

North Central Baptist is one of the first in San Antonio to provide Electromagnetic Navigation Bronchoscopy (ENB). ENB is a minimally invasive outpatient procedure that gives physicians access to hard to reach regions deep within the lung. The technology enables physicians to locate small lung lesions, and collect small tissue samples (biopsy) for diagnostic testing and potential treatment.

This unique approach may increase the chances that a patient will safely get a diagnosis and begin treatment if needed. “This is an option that will help many patients,” says David Marks, M.D., one of the physicians using the ENB technology at North Central Baptist Hospital.

“ENB provides us the ability to detect lung disease and lung cancer earlier, even before symptoms are evident, enhancing treatment options for patients.”

David Cohen, M.D. also uses the new technology to help patients. “A physician locates a lesion or spot that is found deep in the lung on an X-Ray, a CT-Scan or PET-CT. The patient’s CT is loaded into planning software that creates a 3D roadmap of the lungs, and from there the ENB technology guides the physician to the target lesion.”

The ENB procedure combines GPS-like technology with a catheter-based system that uses the patient’s natural airways to access lesions that were previously hard to reach. Typically a patient with a spot on their lung had the options of major surgery to remove a section of the lung, bronchoscopy, which does not reach lesions deep in the lung, needle biopsy, or watchful waiting. Traditional bronchoscopy cannot reach the distant regions of the lung, where more than two-thirds of all lung lesions are found.

For more information on this innovative new procedure being used at North Central Baptist Hospital, call 297-7005.