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Lung Cancer

Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery reduces pain,
recovery time for patients with early-stage disease


Lung Center Facts:

  • Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related deaths in men and second most common in women.
  • Lung cancer claims 1.3 million lives worldwide annually.
  • The five-year survival rate for all patients diagnosed with lung cancer is 16 percent, compared to 64.1 percent for colon, 88.5 percent for breast, and 99.9 percent for prostate cancer.
  • For patients with early-stage lung cancer the five-year survival rate ranges from 70 to 80 percent, compared to from 5 to 10 percent for late-stage lunge cancer.
In early November 2008, Burton Kohn, 82, of Palm Desert, Calif., woke up one night feeling seriously ill. A trip to Eisenhower Medical Center confirmed a gastrointestinal problem, which could be treated easily.

What couldn't be treated so easily was the spot on Kohn's lung that a whole-body scan detected during his trip to the hospital.

Kohn, who has stopped smoking 30 years ago, was stunned.

"It's surreal. It takes a while to sink in. Then you just feel strange."

  
While the spot was lung cancer, it was found at an early stage, and Kohn was able to undergo endoscopic surgery to remove the affected lobe at the Thoracic Disease Center at St. Joseph's.

He left St. Joseph's three days after surgery and spent Thanksgiving Day
with his daughter and her family, who
live in Phoenix.

Improving surgery for early-stage lung disease


 
Kohn is one patient whose cancer was removed using video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS), which uses three or four small incisions to remove the affected lobe. A tiny video camera is guided into one of the incisions to give surgeons a clear view of the lungs. The surgery team uses the other incisions to insert instruments into the chest, do the operation, and take out the diseased lobe.

VATS does not requite a long incision between the ribs or the spreading of the rib cage. As a result, patients undergoing VATS experience less discomfort and recover more quickly.

VATS is offered by the Thoracic Disease Center at St. Joseph's in the newly renovated Heart & Lung Tower. St. Joseph's Foundation supports the Thoracic Disease Center. To make a donation to the Center, contact the Foundation at 602-406-3041 or click here.