Minimal Invasion, Maximum Benefit

New surgical procedure for early lung cancer reduces pain, recovery time and costs

Allan Pickens Photo: Scott Galvin

A new surgical technique offered at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center is helping people with early stage lung cancer recover more quickly with less pain.

The new technique, called a thoracoscopic lobectomy, involves removing a portion of the lung without cutting large muscles or spreading the ribs. As a result, patients leave the hospital in half the time of conventional lung surgery, and can usually return to work in only two weeks. With traditional lung cancer surgery, patients remain in the hospital as long as a week.

“It’s a way of treating cancer with a less-invasive procedure that will get patients back to their regular activities sooner,” says Allan Pickens, M.D. (Residency 2004), thoracic surgeon at the Cancer Center and lecturer in surgery at the Medical School. The U-M is one of a select few centers nationwide offering the new procedure.

Traditional lung cancer surgery is a thoracotomy, in which the surgeon cuts through the muscles into the chest and spreads open the ribs to access the lungs. The incision is large, about 20 centimeters, and recovery is slow and painful.

With the new technique the surgeon makes three small incisions of 2-4 centimeters each. A camera is inserted through a fourth small incision and allows the surgeon to see inside the chest. Very little muscle is cut.

Surgeons are seeing better pulmonary function in patients who have the less invasive procedure, according to Pickens. In addition to going home sooner, recovery is easier and requires fewer narcotic painkillers. Initial research suggests cancer survival rates are similar for both procedures.

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For an expanded version of the story:
www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2005/lungcancer.htm

For patient information on lung cancer:
www.cancer.med.umich.edu/cancertreat/thoracic/lung_cancer.shtml