Can't be inaccurate: how 2 tiny robot arms could halve digestive cancer surgery time

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Developed at CUHK, the robotic system is entering human trials, aiming to remove early-stage gastrointestinal tumours faster while preserving patients' organs In the final instalment of a four-part Health Matters wellness series on frontier medicine in Hong Kong, Elizabeth Cheung examines a dual-arm surgical robot that could remove gastrointestinal tumours in about half the usual time, and the hurdles between its fir

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ong, thin tube that also contains an endoscopic camera. The device enters the body and navigates the tortuous pathways of the gastrointestinal tract, sometimes travelling 70cm to 80cm from the entry point to reach the lesion. The surgeon controls the robotic arms using two hand controls at a console. Chiu said such precise, delicate arms were necessary because early-stage tumours were usually located in the mucosa, t

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t an hour and Ho was discharged the following day. But removing a polyp or a lesion measuring 3cm (1.2 inches) to 4cm can take up to two hours, according to Professor Philip Chiu Wai-yan, dean of medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), who performed Ho's procedure. A new surgical device, developed under Chiu's leadership, could cut the operating time for lesions of a similar size by half, to an averag

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e of 49 minutes. Chiu, an internationally renowned surgeon, performed the world's first robotic ESD in the stomach in 2011 and the world's first such procedure in the colorectum in 2020. The new device, known as the EndoR Surgical System, is designed to carry out the procedure more quickly and safely. It primarily targets patients with early-stage gastrointestinal cancers, or those with polyps that are difficult to r

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emove. The system consists of a long, thin tube that enters the body through a natural orifice, such as the anus or mouth, and performs surgery inside the gastrointestinal tract without making any incisions. At present, it is the world's only surgical robotic system equipped with two arms that can work throughout the entire gastrointestinal tract, and it has entered clinical trials. Other surgical robots that enter t

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hrough the body's natural openings may not be able to reach some parts of the gastrointestinal system. Chiu said the system's robotic arms were what set it apart. "The EndoR has two robot arms and they are really small," Chiu said. "They have to perform this dissection with one arm for traction, the other arm is for dissection." The two arms, fitted with knife tips measuring just 1.5mm to 2mm, are housed inside the l

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ogramme began as a pilot in 2016 and became a regular programme two years later. Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in Hong Kong. In 2023, more than 5,400 people were diagnosed with the disease, and more than 2,200 died from it. The team now aims to recruit six to eight patients with early-stage colorectal cancer for the trial. It hopes to test the device on patients with upper gastrointestinal cancers

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