Innovative biopsy technique leads to early lung cancer detection and recovery

Twelve years after losing her husband David to lung cancer, Bev Brookshire faced her own health scare. When she began to experience shortness of breath and wheezing, a CT scan at Washington state-based MultiCare revealed a nodule on her lung. And when the usual approach to evaluate further wasn’t possible due to a health condition, doctors got creative.

“Bev has significant kyphoscoliosis (curvature of the spine that’s both sideways and forward/backward), which made the biopsy challenging,” MultiCare Interventional Pulmonologist Abhishek Biswas, M.D., explained in a MultiCare blog post. “The only way to do the biopsy was with robotic-navigation bronchoscopy with cone-beam, real-time imaging.”

Bronchoscopy, or transbronchial biopsy, is a minimally invasive procedure where a thin tube is guided down the throat to the lungs. Using this unique method, Brookshire’s care team was able to determine that she had stage 1 non-small cell lung cancer and acted quickly to get her into treatment. Following a successful surgery, Brookshire recovered quickly and enjoyed an Alaskan cruise with her daughter two weeks later. Since then, she hasn’t had to undergo radiation or chemotherapy and her last CT scan was clear. And now she’s a major proponent of early CT scans.

“I tell everybody I know, ‘If you’re a smoker or former smoker, get a CT scan,’” Brookshire said. “Better safe than sorry.”