Preliminary Results of Robotic Lobectomy in Stage IIIA-N2 NSCLC after Induction Treatment: A Case Control Study

Despite there already being many studies on robotic surgery as a minimally invasive approach for non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, the use of this technique for stage III disease is still poorly described. These are the preliminary results of our prospective study on the safety and effectiveness of robotic approaches in patients with locally advanced NSCLC in terms of postoperative complications and oncological outcomes. Since 2016, we prospectively investigated 19 consecutive patients with NSCLC stage IIIA-pN2 (diagnosed by EBUS-TBNA) who underwent lobectomy and radical lymph node dissection with robotic approaches after induction treatment. Furthermore, we matched a case-control study with 46 patients treated with open surgery during the same period of time, with similar age, comorbidities, clinical stage and tumor size. The individual matched population was composed of 16 robot-assisted thoracic surgeries and 16 patients who underwent open surgery. The median time range of resection was inferior in the open group compared to robotic lobectomy (243 vs. 161 min; p < 0.001). Lymph node resection and positivity were not significantly different (p = 0.96 and p = 0.57, respectively). Moreover, no difference was observed for PFS (p = 0.16) or OS (p = 0.41). In conclusion, we demonstrated that the early outcomes and oncological results of N2-patients after robotic lobectomy were similar to those who had open surgery. Considering the advantages of minimally invasive surgery, robot-assisted lobectomy appears to be a safe approach to patients with locally advanced diseases.