The role of minimally invasive surgery in pediatric solid tumors

During recent years, minimally invasive surgery (MIS) has become the standard approach for various operations in infants and children. MIS in pediatric thoracic and abdominal tumors is a controversial approach in the surgical management of childhood cancer. Meanwhile, more and more oncological biopsies and resections are being performed laparoscopically or thoracoscopically. Despite its increasing role in pediatric tumor surgery, the different national and international multicenter trial groups have not yet implemented MIS within guidelines and recommendations in most of the current treatment protocols. An increasing number of retrospective reports describes a potential role of MIS in the management of different pediatric oncological entities. Over the time, there has been a diverse development of this approach with regard to the different neoplasms. Nevertheless, there is a lack of prospective randomized trails assessing MIS. This still represents a requirement for evidence-based medicine and judging the advantages and disadvantages of this approach. The purpose of this state-of-the-art article is to review the current literature to describe the application of MIS in pediatric solid tumors.