Robot-assisted surgery for women with endometrial cancer: Surgical and oncologic outcomes within a Belgium gynaecological oncology group cohort

Objective: To evaluate surgical and oncologic outcomes of patients treated by robot-assisted surgery for endometrial cancer within the Belgium Gynaecological Oncology Group (BGOG). Study design: We performed a retrospective analysis of women with clinically Stage I endometrial cancer who underwent surgical treatment from 2007 to 2018 in five institutions of the BGOG group. Results: A total of 598 consecutive women were identified. The rate of conversion to laparotomy was low (0.8%). The mean postoperative Complication Common Comprehensive Index (CCI) score was 3.4. The rate of perioperative complications did not differ between age groups, however the disease-free survival was significantly lower in patients over 75 years compared to patients under 65 years of age (p=0.008). Per-operative complications, conversion to laparotomy rate, post-operative hospital stay, CCI score and disease-free survival were not impacted by increasing BMI. Conclusion: Robot-assisted surgery for the surgical treatment of patients suffering from early-stage endometrial cancer is associated with favourable surgical and oncologic outcomes, particularly for unfavourable groups such as elderly and obese women, thus permitting a low morbidity minimally-invasive surgical approach for the majority of patients in expert centres. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd, BASO similar to The Association for Cancer Surgery, and the European Society of Surgical Oncology. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Robot-assisted surgery for endometrial cancer showed favorable surgical and oncologic outcomes, with low conversion to laparotomy rate and perioperative complications. Age and BMI did not significantly impact the surgical outcomes.