A patient with endometrial cancer underwent robot-assisted surgery at a medical center in Mexico, representing one of the earliest examples of such cases. This case report was recently published in Cureus.
The 49-year-old woman had experienced progressive vaginal bleeding post-menopause. A transvaginal ultrasound revealed a thickened endometrium. Her ovaries and cervix appeared normal.
A biopsy confirmed that she had endometrial cancer (well-differentiated invasive endometrioid adenocarcinoma). Additional scans were conducted, but there was no evidence that the cancer had spread.
In December 2022, the patient underwent a robot-assisted laparoscopic radical hysterectomy (the removal of the uterus, cervix, ovaries and fallopian tubes).
Laparoscopic procedures allow doctors to access the abdomen via small incisions in which instruments are inserted and maneuvered. These surgeries are generally considered minimally invasive, as they do not involve the need of a larger incision.
Read more about endometrial cancer signs and symptoms
Robotic-assisted surgery is a newer, advanced form of laparoscopic surgery. Instead of the surgeon directly handling the instruments used to perform the surgery, the surgeon sits at a console and uses a controller to move the robotic system’s instruments.
“The robotic platform offers advantages such as enhanced three-dimensional vision, greater precision, elimination of physiological tremor, movement scaling, surgical ergonomics, and wrist-like instruments with seven degrees of freedom that mimic human wrist mobility,” noted the authors.
Doctors were able to confirm that the endometrioid adenocarcinoma was moderately differentiated, measured 5 cm x 4.5 cm, and was confined to the endometrial cavity. This cancer had not spread to nearby lymph nodes.
After this surgery was conducted, the patient’s doctors could confidently classify this cancer as early-stage, and no additional cancer treatments were deemed necessary.
Robot-assisted surgery has gained prominence as it has been shown to result in outcomes similar to that of open surgery, where a larger incision is made. However, robot-assisted surgery is associated with less blood loss, less postsurgical pain and a shorter length of hospital stay.
“As robotic platforms become more accessible and surgical teams gain proficiency, this technology has the potential to redefine the standard of care for gynecologic cancers in Mexico,” the authors of the case report concluded.
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