Medical experts from Shanghai Chest Hospital has partnered with a medical technology company to develop equipment that uses people's naturalchannel to treat lung cancer.

The transbronchial flexible microwave ablation antenna is the nation’s first approved invention in the field, and the first device developed by the hospital to be clinically used.

Ablation is a minimally invasive treatment for lung cancer that can reduce damage to healthy lung tissue and improve patients’ quality of life, using high-frequency electrical current to heat up and destroy cancerous cells — an option for patients who can’t undergo surgery, have multiple cancerous changes or suffer post-surgery relapses.

Dr Sun Jiayuan, director of the hospital's respiratory endoscopecenter, initiated the idea.

Compared with traditional practices where needles are inserted through patients' chests, the ablation antenna enters their bodies from mouth or nose, through air channels to reach the lung cancer, causing less trauma and reducing complications related to bleeding and pneumothorax.

The transbronchial flexible microwave ablation antenna