Preventive Oncology and Diagnostic Cancer

Robotic surgery for cancer treatment

Robotic surgery systems have extra robotic arms remotely controlled by surgeons. One of the robot arms has a laparoscope. Other arms grip small surgical instruments that can fit into an incision less than an inch long. The surgeon sits at a console with 3D views of the tumor. A joystick similar to that for a video game precisely controls each robotic arm. While the robot arms are doing the actual surgery, they still require direct input from the surgeon and cannot be operated without human intervention. Robotic surgery has the benefit of less surgeon fatigue and eliminating hand tremor during long, complicated procedures.

MD Anderson uses robotic surgery for removing the prostate or kidneys. It can also be used for removing tumors in the uterus, lung and colon.