GRAND FORKS – Lung cancer is by far the leading cause of cancer death in this country, accounting for about one in five of all cancer deaths, research reveals – and a physician with Altru Health System is using new technology to bring hope and better outcomes for those who are fighting the disease. Each year, more people die of lung cancer than colon, breast and prostate cancers combined, according to the American Cancer Society. In 2024, an estimated 125,070 people in the U.
S. will succumb to the disease, more than three times the number of deaths from colorectal cancer, the second leading cause of cancer death. In North Dakota, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths.
It is the No. 1 most diagnosed cancer among men and women combined, according to the North Dakota Cancer Coalition. Only 25.
8% of all lung cancer cases nationally are diagnosed at an early stage, when the survival rate is much higher. “My goal is to shorten, as much as possible, the time between discovering the (cancerous) nodules and (the start of) treatment,” said Dr. Mohamad Bitar, a lung specialist who joined Altru last August after completing internal medicine residency training in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care in Houston, Texas.
ADVERTISEMENT To that end, this past spring, Altru installed a new technology, Ion Robotic Bronchoscopy by Intuitive, which allows Drs. Bitar and Antranik Mangardich, pulmonologists, to detect cancer in a minimally invasive pe.