Report on First International Workshop on Robotic Surgery in Thoracic Oncology.
A workshop of experts from France, Germany, Italy, and the United States took place at Humanitas Research Hospital Milan, Italy, on February 10 and 11, 2016, to examine techniques for and applications of robotic surgery to thoracic oncology. The main topics of presentation and discussion were robotic surgery for lung resection; robot-assisted thymectomy; minimally invasive surgery for esophageal cancer; new developments in computer-assisted surgery and medical applications of robots; the challenge of costs; and future clinical research in robotic thoracic surgery. The following article summarizes the main contributions to the workshop. The Workshop consensus was that since video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) is becoming the mainstream approach to resectable lung cancer in North America and Europe, robotic surgery for thoracic oncology is likely to be embraced by an increasing numbers of thoracic surgeons, since it has technical advantages over VATS, including intuitive movements, tremor filtration, more degrees of manipulative freedom, motion scaling, and high-definition stereoscopic vision. These advantages may make robotic surgery more accessible than VATS to trainees and experienced surgeons and also lead to expanded indications. However, the high costs of robotic surgery and absence of tactile feedback remain obstacles to widespread dissemination. A prospective multicentric randomized trial (NCT02804893) to compare robotic and VATS approaches to stages I and II lung cancer will start shortly.
Thoracic Surgery, Humanitas Research Hospital, Rozzano , Milan , Italy.
Giulia
G
Veronesi
Thoracic Surgery, University of Alabama at Birmingham , Birmingham , USA.
Robert
R
Cerfolio
Istituto Italiano Tecnologia , Genova , Italy.
Roberto
R
Cingolani
Universitätsmedizin Berlin - Charité Campus Mitte , Berlin , Germany.
Jens C
JC
Rueckert
IRCAD , Strasburg , France.
Luc
L
Soler
Department of Thoracic Surgery, Istanbul Bilim University , Istanbul , Turkey.
Alper
A
Toker
Thoracic Surgery, Humanitas Research Hospital, Rozzano , Milan , Italy.
Umberto
U
Cariboni
Thoracic Surgery, Humanitas Research Hospital, Rozzano , Milan , Italy.
Edoardo
E
Bottoni
General Surgery, Humanitas Research Hospital, Rozzano , Milan , Italy.
Uberto
U
Fumagalli
Chirurgia Toracica, Ospedale Cisanello , Pisa , Italy.
Franca
F
Melfi
Direzione amministrativa, Azienda Ospedaliera Cisanello , Pisa , Italy.
Carlo
C
Milli
Thoracic Surgery, Humanitas Research Hospital, Rozzano , Milan , Italy.
Pierluigi
P
Novellis
Thoracic Surgery, Humanitas Research Hospital, Rozzano , Milan , Italy.
Emanuele
E
Voulaz
Thoracic Surgery, Humanitas Research Hospital, Rozzano , Milan , Italy.
Marco
M
Alloisio
cost–benefit analysis; lung cancer; robotic surgery; segmentectomy; virtual reality