Patients at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (MTW) could soon be benefiting from new technology capable of detecting lung cancer in its early stages.

Electromagnetic Navigation Bronchoscopy (ENB) uses methods similar to that of a GPS system to create a 3D map of the lungs.

This helps doctors guide a set of catheters through complex airways and diagnose and prepare to treat cancerous lesions using a single procedure.

Dr Syed Arshad Husain, a consultant respiratory physician leading the ENB service, said MTW is one of only two acute trusts making use of the new system.

He said: “Generally, lung cancers are often detected and diagnosed very late, resulting in poor prognosis when compared to other cancers.

"This new navigational system, however, aims to improve detection times and this will have a positive impact on survival rates and quality of life.”

Standard procedures used to collect small tissue samples from the lungs (biopsies) to diagnose lung disease and lung cancer, can’t reliably reach deep into the lungs, where nearly two-thirds of all lung lesions are found.

ENB solves this problem and is far less invasive than more complicated, surgical procedures.

Most patients who have had ENB treatment can go home on the same day.

Dr Husain added: “By introducing this new service to Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, we will also be able to help reduce the number of referrals for surgical biopsies at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Trust, and also bring the waiting time down for CT guided lung biopsies, which will be of huge benefit to our patients."

MTW has been supported by The Peggy Wood Foundation in setting up the new service. The charity has supported the hospital trust with donations of more than £3.5 million since the 1980s.