Queen Elizabeth Hospital has unveiled new £250,000 specialist equipment able to diagnose lung cancer.

The new ultrasound machine means patients under Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust will no longer have to travel to Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital for a potentially life-saving procedure.

The device is a specialist lung cancer diagnosis machine and will "greatly improve patient care," helping the trust to meet its cancer targets.

It's called an Endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS), and it can both diagnose the type of lung cancer and accurately judge the stage of the disease.

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It is both minimally invasive and highly effective in detecting lung cancer and other diseases, and uses a small camera with a specialised ultrasound tip which allows doctors to see the lymph nodes in the centre of the chest.

Physicians are then able to take samples from the lymph nodes and send them to the laboratory to look for any abnormalities.

The £250,000 machine was funded by the South East London Accountable Cancer Network, and is in use at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich.

A spokesperson for the Respiratory Team at QEH commented: "Having the EBUS ultrasound machine at QEH will greatly improve patient care as well as helping us meet our cancer targets.

“Not only will we be able to diagnose patients in a more timely manner, but our patients will no longer have to travel all the way to Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital to undergo the procedure.”