Robot-Assisted Surgery May Be Standard Modality for Rectal Cancer Resection

CancerNetwork^® spoke with Alessio Pigazzi, MD, PhD, FACS, FASCRS, executive medical director of Surgical Services, the vice chair of Clinical Network Surgery in the Department of Surgery, and clinical professor in the division of Colorectal Surgery at City of Hope Orange County, about his recent appointment as executive medical director of Colorectal Surgery by City of Hope Orange County. The appointment comes 20 years after Pigazzi performed the first robot-assisted tumor removal for rectal cancer. He expressed how robot-assisted surgery has evolved since he had conducted this procedure.

Pigazzi emphasized the growth of robot-assisted surgery from a practice attempted by a handful of surgeons 20 years ago to a mainstay in the modern colorectal cancer surgery landscape. Specifically, for rectal cancers, Pigazzi explained that robot-assisted surgery has surpassed open and laparoscopic resection methods as the preferred surgical modality, particularly in the United States.

Pigazzi concluded by expressing pride for having initiated the growth of robot-assisted colorectal resection through his initial successful procedure 20 years ago when he started his career at City of Hope.

Transcript:

The growth of robotic-assisted surgery in our field of colorectal surgery has been truly exponential and a remarkable journey. When I started exactly 20 years ago, there were probably only a handful of surgeons across the world who had tried to do colorectal resections robotically. Twenty years later, it has become the mainstay technique for colorectal surgery in the United States and in many other countries as well. In rectal cancer, in particular, which has been one of the main foci of my surgical career, robotic-assisted surgery has surpassed both open and laparoscopic resection in the United States as the preferred modalities. I am certainly proud to have opened that route 20 years ago and having done so at City of Hope when I started my career.

Reference

City of Hope Orange County appoints Alessio Pigazzi, M.D., Ph.D., as executive medical director, colorectal surgery. News release. City of Hope Orange County. August 20, 2024. Accessed September 4, 2024. https://tinyurl.com/yf4p8np3