New robotic procedure to test for lung cancer comes to Galesburg

The rate of new lung cancer cases in both Iowa and Illinois is higher than the national average. In numbers from 2025, the American Lung Association reports that Iowa has 60.3 new cases for every 100,000 people. Illinois was at 58.1 cases per 100,000 people. The national average was just 52.8 per 100,000 people.

That's why OSF HealthCare St. Mary Medical Center in Galesburg brought a new technology to their rural hospital. "This is a serious problem," said Dr. Usman Cheema, a pulmonologist at the healthcare center.

Cheema says about 125,000 people die each year because of lung cancer. That makes it the most deadly cancerous disease.

"The key is early detection of lung cancer," said Cheema. "That's where this robotic bronchoscopy comes in."

The new technology is already in use in some other hospitals in the Quad Cities. But for a disease as common and dangerous as lung cancer, the leaders at OSF HealthCare St. Mary Medical Center wanted to bring the robotic bronchoscopy procedure closure the Galesburg and the surrounding communities.

"Keeping the care here and keeping the services in front of people so that they don't have to travel is really important," said the president of the healthcare center, Zachary Yoder.

The robotic bronchoscopy provides a major upgrade to the hospital's ability to test for lung cancer.

"The yield for regular bronchoscopies was like five, ten percent," said Cheema. "Now the yield with this robotic bronchoscopy has gone between 80 to 90 percent."

The risks of the procedure also drop from up to 30 percent to under two percent, though a procedure completed using a robot could worry some patients. That includes Nancy Easley. She's 84 years old and underwent the procedure to find out if she had lung cancer.

"I thought, I don't want to be done by a robot. I want a human to do it," said Easley.

But she changed her mind when she heard how much less invasive the new procedure was. They work through the same tube that the anesthesiologist puts in a patient, through the throat.

"I thoughtI never I had it. I never had an incision, nothing," said Easley.

Easley found out she had cancer through that procedure, now it gives her the option for treatment.

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