Doctors at Memorial Regional West and Memorial Cancer Institute have a new way of detecting lung cancer with the assistance of a robot.
The robotic machine lets doctors see inside the lungs in a three-dimensional way to better detect lung cancers in the early stages of the disease.
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"The combination of the robotic technology, the artificial intelligence and the bronchoscopy is the new exciting technology here," Chief of Thoracic Surgery Dr. Mark Block said.
The FDA-approved Monarch Platform robot has a flexible robotic endoscope that can penetrate the lungs in a better way allowing doctors to find cancer before it's too late.
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The doctors say this machine is the first of its kind in South Florida and one of just a few in the country and it'll help thousands of patients they see every year.
"Lung cancer is fairly common primarily because of cigarette smoking, but that's not the only cause," Dr. Block said. "We do know that about 20% of lung cancers are diagnosed in people that never smoked. Sometimes that's exposure to environmental agents, sometimes exposure to secondhand smoke."
