Lung cancer

Department of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine

The Concord Cancer Centre Department of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine is a fully integrated service for the diagnosis and management of all adult respiratory diseases (except cystic fibrosis).

Patients are provided with prompt and detailed assessments of respiratory and other morbidities that are relevant to diagnosis and treatment options.

All the important respiratory diagnostic and staging procedures are provided within the department. The Department's advanced Interventional Pulmonology (IP) Service performs ultrasound-guided biopsies of centrally located masses, mediastinal lymph nodes and smaller peripheral abnormalities. The IP service also performs complex palliative procedures for central airways disease. Pleuroscopy is performed under sedation/local anaesthetic as well as the insertion of indwelling pleural catheters for the palliation of recurrent pleural effusions.

For patients with isolated lung nodules requiring follow-up assessment, the team collaborate with Concord Hospital Radiology services.

Lung Cancer Service

Concord Hospital offers a rapid access, efficient service to help patients and GPs when the question of a possible lung cancer arises.

After contact, the average time to first consultation is less than two days for patients with a suspicious radiological appearance. The time to diagnosis and complete staging depends on the complexity of procedures required to achieve this. In straightforward cases, this may be completed within a week - this is achieved in collaboration with the Departments of Radiology and Pathology, and through rapid access to PET imaging.

Where a non-cancer diagnosis is made, patients are moved seamlessly into a management or follow-up program.

Subsequent to a diagnosis of lung cancer being made, patients are managed after discussion within a Lung Cancer Multidisciplinary Team Meeting.

Lung Cancer and Mesothelioma multidisciplinary team

The Concord Cancer Centre Department of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine has a long history in lung cancer care. In the 1980s, the department established a weekly lung cancer multidisciplinary team meeting - long before the benefits of multidisciplinary teams were widely recognised.

The Concord Cancer Centre team include patients from Canterbury Hospital in their multidisciplinary team discussions.

The Multidisciplinary Team includes the following respiratory physicians:

• Head of Department - Professor Matthew Peters
• Professor Alvin Ing
• Clinical Associate Professor Claude Farah
• Clinical Associate Professor Lucy Morgan
• Dr Alice Cottee
• Dr Archit Chawla (Canterbury Hospital)
• Dr Elizabeth Veitch
• Dr Harshini Sivaramakrishnan (Canterbury Hospital)
• Dr Lydia Makarie Rofail
• Dr Patricia Hullah
• Dr Ruby Brillante
• Dr Soo Wei Foo
• Dr Tajalli Saghaie
• Dr Xiao Hu (Canterbury Hospital)
  
  

Referrals to the Department of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine

A referral from a general practitioner (GP) or specialist is needed for all appointments.

Appointments can be made directly to the specialist rooms or clinic.

If diagnostic tests are required, these are arranged on an individual basis. Some patients' diagnostic tests may be booked before a first visit. The more information included in the referral the better.