Diagnosis: Right From the Start

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Navigational Bronchoscopy

Getting the right diagnosis means getting the best treatment, and increasing the chances for the best outcomes. Roswell Park offers state-of-the-art technology that is not offered elsewhere, except at designated cancer centers.

Standard diagnostic tests for lung cancer at Roswell Park include: 

• Pulmonary function tests
• Cardiopulmonary exercise stress tests
• Lung cancer screening/surveillance in high-risk populations
• Low dose chest CT
• Bronchoscopy with autofluorescence
• Flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy

Roswell Park continues to add advanced technology procedures to its arsenal of tools for fast, early and accurate lung cancer detection and diagnosis. The latest include:

• Endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS), which provides a minimally invasive way to examine, assess and biopsy lymph nodes or other masses outside the bronchial tubes — without an incision. EBUS uses ultrasound imaging from inside the trachea to guide needle insertion to the lymph node or mass for biopsy. Patients usually go home the same day. Roswell Park is the only Western New York center equipped for EBUS.

EBUS helps us diagnose whether a mass or enlarged lymph node is cancerous, infected or related to sarcoidosis, and we can do this without surgery." - Samjot Dhillon, MD

• Navigational bronchoscopy, which takes the bronchoscope to difficult-to-reach places further and deeper in the lung than ever before for diagnosis, staging and lesion marking, and helps avoid more-invasive procedures such as thoracoscopy and mediastinoscopy. This tool uses a CT scan and proprietary software to create a three- dimensional lung model and roadmap for the fiberoptic-equipped bronchoscope to navigate to the tumor. RPCI doctors can now reach lesions and nodules very deep in the lungs and those close to blood vessels — ones we could not reach by CT guidance, or where other methods of biopsy are associated with higher risk. Navigational bronchoscopy also allows technicians to leave markers to guide future radiation or surgical procedures.