For Patients
Referrals for
cancer assessment
If you have been referred to our center for a potential malignancy, we treat every referral as urgent and understand patients desire a quick answer about what is going on.
All referrals for potential thoracic malignancy are triaged with imaging review within 48h of us receiving the consult from your physician. Based on the imaging findings, the Interventional Pulmonology team may order further staging scans before your initial consult. However, this does not mean cancer is confirmed or even expected as we treat every referral as suspected malignancy until proven otherwise. If your scan is worrisome for malignancy, you may be enrolled in our EBUS QuickStart program to accelerate your biopsy and this will be communicated to you once contacted by our LDAP clinic nurse lead. The purpose of this program is to accelerate patients through the diagnostic phase to rapidly see an oncologist if cancer is confirmed or to provide you with peace of mind quickly if cancer is ruled out. If you would like to decline enrollment into the EBUS QuickStart program when contacted, this will not delay your time to be seen in consultation. In addition, the first available EBUS slot will still be available to you if you then consent after speaking to one of our physicians.
Cancer related dyspnea (shortness of breath)
Patients who have survived cancer or are going through treatment for a malignancy frequently have shortness of breath, also called dyspnea, which causes patients to have difficulty catching their breath or to feel tightness in their chests. Dyspnea may come on with physical activity, or even while resting. For many patients, this can be a distressing symptom that their cancer may have returned or progressed but, thankfully, this is not the most common cause of dyspnea in a cancer patient or cancer survivor.
Having problems breathing can be upsetting, but the good news is there are practical tips to prevent, manage and treat this common condition in cancer patients and survivors. For patients with dyspnea related to an active malignancy, common treatable causes of cancer related dyspnea include blocked airways, fluid buildup, and low levels of oxygen in the blood. We provide a comprehensive work up for the cause of the symptoms and, when necessary, may offer minimally invasive interventional pulmonology procedures, including bronchoscopy, a sophisticated minimally invasive technique to open up the airways, and management of pleural disease through our malignant pleural effusion clinic.
