SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital announces a major milestone in visualizing lung cancer for surgical procedures. The SSM Health Academic Hospital is the first medical center in Missouri to offer CYTALUX® (pafolacianine) injection as part of its oncology surgery services. This injection is the only Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approved fluorescent imaging technology to light up lung cancer during surgery, enhancing surgeons’ ability to visualize cancer in real time.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths, with nearly 240,000 new diagnoses and 130,000 deaths from the disease in the U.S. each year1. In addition, the American Lung Association ranks Missouri among the worst in the nation for new lung cancer diagnoses. While surgery is a gold standard treatment, up to 55% of people with lung cancer who undergo surgery with healing intent have a recurrence.2
“CYTALUX® has been demonstrated to change the operative plan in one in five patients, mostly by finding additional lesions, or by changing the amount of lung that should be resected for optimal outcomes,” says Nirmal Veeramachaneni, MD. “We are delighted to be able to offer this technology to our patients."
In a clinical trial, this procedure helped surgeons find a lung cancer lesion that could not be found with standard approaches in 19% of patients. In 8% of patients, the procedure identified an additional cancerous lesion that was missed by preoperative imaging. Administered by standard IV in as little as one hour before surgery, the injection binds to folate receptors that are present on lung cancer cells and contains a dye that lights up when a special camera is used during surgery.
SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital is committed to bringing the latest in cancer technologies to our patients and is driving advancement by offering this procedure for use in lung cancer surgery.
References:
- NIH National Cancer Institute. Cancer Stat Facts: Lung and Bronchus Cancer. Accessed December 2022.
- Uramoto H, Tanaka F. Recurrence after surgery in patients with NSCLC. Transl Lung Cancer Res. 2014 Aug;3(4):242-9. doi: 10.3978/j.issn.2218-6751.2013.12.05. PMID: 25806307; PMCID: PMC4367696.
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