Mayo Clinic Finds Transoral Robotic Surgery is Safe and Effective in Treating Some Throat Cancers

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

A new Mayo Clinic study found that the use of transoral robotic surgery for the treatment of tonsil and base of tongue cancers is safe, effective and enables faster recovery times. This study is available online.

VIDEO ALERT: Additional audio and video resources, including excerpts from an interview with Dr. Moore describing the research, are available on the Mayo Clinic News Blog.

An estimated 24,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with throat cancer each year. One type, oropharyngeal cancer, begins in the oropharynx, the part of the throat that is directly behind the mouth. Tonsil tumors and base of tongue tumors are both oropharyngeal cancers.

Transoral robotic surgery is a new use of the da Vinci robotic surgical system to remove hard-to-access tumors in the throat. Robotic surgery has previously been proven effective for prostate, gynecologic and cardiac surgery.

"The results of this research were even more positive than we expected. We found great advantages to using transoral robotic surgery for tonsil and base of tongue cancers," says Eric Moore, M.D. study author and a head and neck surgeon at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. "There were no major complications, no tumor recurrence and, when compared to traditional surgeries, patients began swallowing on their own sooner and left the hospital sooner."

Dr. Moore and his team performed transoral robotic surgery to remove tumors in 45 patients. These patients were followed and data was recorded on surgical time, blood loss, surgical complications, tracheostomy tubes, feeding tubes and resumption of oral diet, speech, swallowing and tumor recurrence. Twenty-six patients had base of tongue primary tumors and 19 patients had tonsillar fossa tumors. There were no major complications and no procedure was stopped due to inability to remove the tumor. The average hospital stay for these patients was 2.3 days, as compared with seven to 10 days for traditional surgery. Additionally, the removal of feeding tubes in patients undergoing transoral robotic surgery occurred an average of seven to 10 days after surgery, compared with two to three months for traditional surgery.

"We now have experience with transoral robotic surgery in more than 100 patients, and based on the outstanding results, it is our technique of choice for removing tumors of the tonsils and base of tongue," says Dr. Moore. "Our next steps with this research are to expand the use of transoral robotic surgery to the voice box and other regions that are difficult to access through the mouth."

Other members of the Mayo Clinic research team included Doug Henstrom, M.D.; Kerry Olsen, M.D.; Jan Kasperbauer, M.D.; and Michaela McGree.

About Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. Doctors from every medical specialty work together to care for patients, joined by common systems and a philosophy of "the needs of the patient come first." More than 3,300 physicians, scientists and researchers and 46,000 allied health staff work at Mayo Clinic, which has sites in Rochester, Minn., Jacksonville, Fla., and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz. Collectively, the three locations treat more than half a million people each year

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About Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. Doctors from every medical specialty work together to care for patients, joined by common systems and a philosophy of "the needs of the patient come first." More than 3,300 physicians, scientists and researchers and 46,000 allied health staff work at Mayo Clinic, which has sites in Rochester, Minn., Jacksonville, Fla., and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz. Collectively, the three locations treat more than half a million people each year. To obtain the latest news releases from Mayo Clinic, go to www.mayoclinic.org/news. For information about research and education visit www.mayo.edu. MayoClinic.com is available as a resource for your health stories.