Robotic-Assisted Surgery for Early-Stage Cervical Cancer, a Step Forward to the Future

Robotic-Assisted Surgery for Early-Stage Cervical Cancer, a Step Forward to the Future

In the era of personalized medicine, robotic surgery emerges as an ideal modality. The introduction of several platforms into the marketplace, each with its own unique features and specifications, will help to select the most suitable platform for each individual procedure. Radical hysterectomy with pelvic lymphadenectomy represents the standard treatment for early-stage cervical cancer. The management of early-stage cervical carcinoma underwent a significant shift when the LACC trial, a prospective randomized study, was published in 2018. It demonstrated the inferiority of minimally invasive surgery in terms of oncological safety as compared to the open approach. This unexpected and widely debated outcome worldwide did not lead gynecologic oncologic surgeons to take a step back in the treatment of this condition, but rather prompted them to strive for improvement, recognizing that the results of the LACC trial did not reveal an inherent inferiority of the MIS approach, but rather its misuse. The low prevalence of robotic surgical procedures in the MIS arm of the trial also left room for discussion regarding oncological outcomes following robotic surgery. The aim of the present review is to offer an overview of the current applications of robotic surgery in early-stage cervical cancer and to delineate future perspectives.