Lung cancer is the number one cause of deaths from cancer, in large part because it generally isn't detected until very late stages. At that point, survival rates are low and the only option is radical lung surgery. But now imaging technologies can detect smaller cancers, sooner, and in the wake of the publication of the Early Lung Cancer Action Project, the medical device industry is preparing for a paradigm shift. Start-ups are now developing technologies to remove the barriers in diagnosis and access that hinder therapeutic intervention.

Interventional pulmonology may be a specialty device market, but its diseases, including COPD, asthma and lung cancer, are enormous and growing.

The mystery is over; the results of the National Emphysema Treatment Trial Research Group (NETT) have been unveiled, and it's by and large good news for device companies in interventional pulmonology. Although the outcomes are mixed and underscore the need for proper patient selection, clinicians are now hoping that clinical benefits demonstrated by NETT, a 1218-patient, five-year randomized prospective clinical trial comparing lung volume reduction surgery to medical management, will support reimbursement for the surgery.