At SIOG we presented the ROBO-G study which is a study that investigates the effect and the long-term effects, mainly, of robotic surgery for older patients with colorectal cancer.

What was the study design?

The study design is it is a prospective observational study, so no randomisation, just observational.

What were the results of this study?

At SIOG we presented the preliminary results. At that time we included about 40 patients of which 37 we had surgical results and of 29 we also had 3-month follow-up results. What we saw was that with regards to the surgical endpoints that the treatment with robotic surgery was very well tolerated. Only one third of patients had post-operative complications and these were mainly low grade, such as infections or the need for a single blood transfusion. So with regards to daily functioning we saw that most of the patients did not show a decline in daily functioning, only 17% had a decline in ADL functions, so these are activities of daily living such as washing or going to the toilet. About one third of patients had a decline in IADL, so these are more complex functioning such as doing the grocery shopping. We hope to see in the future with longer follow-up that there will be resilience and that some of the patients that have declined in their daily functioning will recover.

Then we also measured quality of life and we were very happy to see that the vast majority of patients did not show any decline of quality of life and some even showed improvement of quality of life. Only 14% showed a decline and, again, with longer follow-up  we hope to see that they will demonstrate some resilience at this point as well.

What do you think is the significance of these results?

Until now we do not have any data showing that robotic surgery for patients, older patients, with colorectal cancer is feasible and safe. So we hope to add data to this knowledge. We believe that many patients, older patients, can be operated even if they are somewhat more frail. We believe that we should not refrain surgery for these patients.