A new procedure being offered at Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC) is helping change the way doctors find and treat certain throat cancers, making KHSC the first hospital in North America to provide this kind of advanced cancer care.
Dr. Robert Bechara, a Gastroenterologist and a world leading expert in advanced endoscopy, recently performed the first endoscopic detection and removal of an early hypopharyngeal cancer in North America at KHSC.
While the procedure itself is highly specialized, the idea behind it is simple: taking an extra 30 seconds during a routine upper endoscopy to carefully examine an area at the back of the throat called the hypopharynx.
"The hypopharynx is an area we already pass through during an upper endoscopy," said Dr. Bechara.
"Taking a closer look only takes about 30 seconds, but it can help us find cancer much earlier."
Hypopharyngeal cancer is not common, but the number of cases is slowly increasing. One of the biggest challenges is that symptoms often do not appear until the cancer is advanced. By that point, treatment is usually more difficult and patient outcomes are often worse.
For many years, the hypopharynx has not been routinely examined during upper endoscopy. As a result, some early cancers may go unnoticed.
"If you don't look, you won't find it," said Dr. Bechara. "We're already passing through the area, so it makes sense to take the time to examine it."
The approach is based on techniques Dr. Bechara learned during sabbatical completing advanced training in Japan, where doctors have been using endoscopy to find and treat early cancers for many years. He recently returned to Kingston focused on finding and removing early cancers in the hypopharynx.
Since bringing this expertise back to Canada, Dr. Bechara has been working to raise awareness with health care providers in the United States and across Canada of the importance of examining this area during routine procedures.
KHSC is also becoming a leader in research and education in this field. Bechara is sharing this approach through research, presentations and physician training programs, including an optical diagnosis course in Kingston that is unique in North America.
"The first step isn't learning a new procedure," said Dr. Bechara. "The first step is simply taking the time to examine this area."
As more physicians learn about the approach, Dr. Bechara believes it could change the way hypopharyngeal cancer is detected across North America.
For KHSC, the work reflects its commitment to improving patient care through research, education and innovation.
"Our goal is always to find cancer earlier and treat it in the least invasive way possible," said Dr. Bechara. "If a small change can make a big difference for patients, it's worth doing."
