Same-Day Diagnosis and Surgery Brings Peace of Mind for La Verne Resident, Lauri Balderrama

La Verne resident Lauri Balderrama, 58, was surprised when a chest X-ray revealed she had a lung tumor. She had never experienced any chest pain and had no symptoms. Lauri had never been a smoker, so her diagnosis came as a bit of a shock. She and her doctor, Mary Kasem, MD, monitored her tumor through CT scans every six months.

“We watched the growth for 18 months, and I was told it may or may not be cancer, as it continued to grow,” said Lauri. “The idea at first was to do a biopsy procedure and then based on the results of the biopsy, remove the growth in a second procedure.”

Fortunately for her, new, modern technologies at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center have made it possible, in some cases, for patients with abnormal lung screenings to receive biopsies and a diagnosis on the same day.

The combined approach to care, called single anesthetic bronchoscopy and resection (SABR), involves two minimally invasive techniques. The first uses Ion, a robotic lung diagnostic device that provides advanced biopsy screening technology, followed by DaVinci, which allows the surgeon to perform video-assisted surgery to remove lung nodules.

The Ion can navigate deeper into lung tissue than traditional lung biopsy methods and offers more precision and quicker detection of lung cancer. Without the use of the Ion, the normal timeline for diagnosing a suspicious growth to treatment may be as long as 4-8 weeks.

“My tumor was growing, and it needed to be removed, even if it wasn’t cancerous,” said Lauri. “So, why not do the biopsy and remove the tumor at the same time?”

Thoracic surgeon Dongning Zhang, MD, MPH, and Derrick Raptis, MD, interventional pulmonologist and pulmonary critical care physician at PVHMC, are among the first physicians in the region to perform the robotic bronchoscopy and tumor removal surgery so patients like Lauri could receive their diagnosis and treatment on the same day.

“I felt there were benefits to doing both procedures at the same time,” said Lauri. “It would reduce the risk of the tumor spreading to my lymph nodes if it were cancer, and it would certainly lower my stress by not having to wait for a second surgery date - which could have taken weeks.”

After the biopsy was performed by Dr. Raptis, Lauri’s tumor was identified as cancerous within minutes by a pathologist in the hospital’s laboratory. Dr. Zhang, who had been standing by, continued the second half of the procedure with the aid of the DaVinci, to remove all traces of the growth.

Throughout her surgery, Lauri remained under anesthesia and was spared the weeks to months of worry patients normally feel as they wait for their diagnosis.

“Learning that you have a suspicious growth is stressful for patients, and through this advanced technology, we can determine a course of action much faster than before, reducing patient anxiety,” said Dr. Zhang. “Our goal is to catch and remove lung cancer at the earliest stage possible, as outcomes are heavily dependent on the growth rate and stage of cancer.”

Lauri’s surgery was performed in late April this year and she was expected to recover completely in four months, but ended up well ahead of schedule, walking 50 minutes non-stop daily and swimming laps in her pool by July.

“I’m feeling much better, almost completely pain-free,” she says. “The doctors, nurses and staff at Pomona Valley are wonderful and they know it’s not just about the procedure; it’s about making a patient comfortable both mentally and physically.”

A nonsmoker like Lauri would normally not have routine lung screening and her cancer could have advanced to a life-threatening next stage.

Routine screening can be a lifesaver even for people who have never smoked.