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VA RESEARCH: SURGEONS PUSH FOR LESS INVASIVE
LUNG
CANCER PROCEDURES -- Less invasive lung surgery
should
become the first option for cancer patients,
experts say.
Story here...
http://www.forbes.com/
forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2007/
06/29/hscout606037.html
Story below:
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Surgeons Push for Less Invasive Lung Cancer
Procedures
(HealthDay News) - Less invasive lung surgery should become the first
option for cancer patients, U.S. experts say.
The procedure, called thoracoscopic lobectomy, "should be considered the
standard of care for patients with early-stage lung cancers," Dr.
Michael Reed, an assistant professor of surgery at the University of
Cincinnati (UC) and a minimally invasive thoracic surgeon at University
Hospital, said in a prepared statement. "But few surgeons offer the
procedure because it's difficult and requires a lot of additional
training."
Only an estimated 10 percent of all lung cancer operations nationwide
are minimally invasive procedures. However, these procedures result in
faster recovery time and less pain for patients, Reed said.
Thoracoscopic lobectomy is a minimally invasive lung surgery that uses
several small incisions instead of a major chest incision that requires
rib-spreading. Only a handful of academic medical centers, including UC,
are actively training surgeons to perform the procedure.
"The key to implementing this program into our practice was having a
dedicated team of extensively trained thoracic surgeons with expertise
in both open and minimally invasive, video-guided techniques," Dr.
Sandra Starnes said in a prepared statement. "This isn't a procedure you
can perform confidently after just a few cases -- mentorship and
expertise are key."
The Cincinnati team has trained two cardiothoracic surgery fellows and
more than a dozen community thoracic surgeons to perform minimally
invasive lung surgery.
To assess how the training program affected the rate of minimally
invasive lobectomies at UC, Reed and Starnes conducted a four-year
review of surgical cases at University Hospital and the Cincinnati
Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
They found that the number of minimally invasive lobectomies performed
by UC surgeons has increased by about 57 percent over four years.
Prior to the implementation of the training program, only about 18
percent of lobectomies were performed with minimally invasive
procedures. Now, Reed estimated, 75 percent of lobectomies at University
Hospital employ minimally invasive techniques.
"We've shown that with a predetermined, step-by-step plan -- guided by a
highly experienced minimally invasive thoracic surgeon -- thoracoscopic
lobectomy can be integrated safely into thoracic surgical training
programs," Reed said.
These findings were to be presented June 29 at the Western Thoracic
Surgical Association's annual meeting in Santa Ana Pueblo, N.M.
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Larry Scott --
