Minimally Invasive Surgery Is Standard for Cervical Cancer. But A New Study Shows It ’s Not Effective

In a demonstration that newer isn’t always better, two studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine show that minimally invasive surgery techniques, including robotic surgery, lead to higher death rates from any cause than traditional, open surgery done through an incision in the abdomen. Minimally invasive surgery — or keyhole surgery, in which doctors perform operations through small incisions rather than by opening up patients and exposing them to complications — and robotic surgery have shortened recovery times and cut back on infections and bleeding. So in many cases, surgeons prefer using those techniques over open surgery that often requires deeper anesthesia, longer recovery times and comes with a higher risk of infection. That’s the case with cervical cancer; most surgeons today recommend minimally invasive hysterectomy to remove the uterus. Doctors at MD Anderson Cancer Center wanted to confirm that this was the best option for patients, so they set up a study to compare survival after the two surgical methods. Understanding how best to prevent recurrences is critical, since most cervical cancer that recurs is difficult to treat. They randomly assigned women diagnosed with early stage cervical cancer to receive either a hysterectomy via minimally invasive surgery or robot-assisted surgery, or through the traditional open technique of making an incision in the abdomen. They fully expected that there would be little difference betw...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Cancer healthytime Source Type: news