PROVIDING A
CANCER ANSWER WHEN A TUMOR HAD TO BE REMOVED, ROBOTIC SURGERY ALLOWED A WOMAN TO BOUNCE BACK QUICKLY.
W
as it cancer? That question hung over the discovery that Susan Krieger Rosen, 71, of Belle Harbor, NY, had a large mass in her right lung. A biopsy typically would provide an answer. But Krieger Rosen’s doctor, Richard Lazzaro, MD, a board-certified thoracic surgeon at Monmouth Medical Center (MMC) and Chief of Thoracic Healthy Together
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Surgery for RWJBarnabas Health’s Southern Region, which also includes Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus and Community Medical Center, felt the lesion was too big for a biopsy to produce a reliable result. “My mass was about 2 by 3 cm,” says Krieger Rosen. “Dr. Lazzaro explained that with a mass that large, a biopsy could sample one spot that doesn’t reveal
Richard Lazzaro, MD (above), used minimally invasive robotic surgery technology to remove a tumor and speed up recovery for Susan Krieger Rosen (opposite).
RWJBarnabas Health and Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus, in partnership with Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey—the state’s only NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center—provide close-to-home access to the most advanced treatment options. Call 844.CANCERNJ or visit www.rwjbh.org/beatcancer.
cancer, yet there could still be cancer next to it. I would not be comfortable doing that.” Krieger Rosen feared the worst as a former smoker who already had developed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and emphysema. “We felt that this thing should come out regardless,” she says. She opted for surgery and felt reassured
Summer 2022
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