Atrium Health using robots to diagnose, treat lung cancer

FORT MILL, N.C. — A South Carolina woman, who has been diagnosed with lung cancer twice, is crediting a robot for helping to find it.

Daily doctors at Atrium Health are turning to robots to diagnose and treat lung cancer.

The instruments are designed to be so precise that they can pick up a tiny rubber band.

With the help of the Ion Robot, doctors were able to biopsy a hard-to-reach area of Catherine Maxwell’s lung.

The newlywed from Fort Mill said she had just recovered from a cancer diagnosis of her right lung in 2022.

And now a new cancer has been discovered on her left.

“Naturally, you’re devastated. You’re totally devastated,” Maxwell said.

Maxwell’s doctor, Jaspal Singh, explained how the Ion Robot’s white biopsy needle hits the nodule exactly.

“Turns out she had a different cancer... we never would have known that or suspected that if we hadn’t done that,” Singh explained.

Singh went on to say that this information was critical when it came to Maxwell’s treatment plan.

The Da Vinci Surgical Robot is another option that has been used in many cases where tumors were removed from the lung.

Maxwell said these technologies are helping her stay positive about her future.

“To me, this is a huge, huge piece of hope that’s sort of been placed in my lap,” Maxwell elaborated.

Atrium Health said North Carolina has one of the highest lung cancer rates in the United States.

This is why the hospital system is focused on making screening for the disease more accessible.

On Wednesday, the hospital had Levine Cancer’s Mobile Lung Screening Bus present in Uptown.

It launched in 2017, and over the years it has been serving residents in the Carolinas who are uninsured or underinsured.

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