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Miller et al. Mini-invasive Surg 2021;5:24 Mini-invasive Surgery
DOI: 10.20517/2574-1225.2021.25

Review Open Access

Oncologic outcomes in robot-assisted radical

cystectomy: Where do we stand in 2021?

Brady L. Miller, Mark Pachorek, Andre-Philippe Sam, Bertram Yuh, Clayton S. Lau
Division of Urologic Oncology, Department of Surgery, City of Hope National Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duarte, CA 91010,
USA.

Correspondence to: Dr. Clayton S. Lau, Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, City of Hope, 1500 E. Duarte Rd, MALP
#1211, Duarte, CA 91010, USA. E-mail: cllau@coh.org

How to cite this article: Miller BL, Pachorek M, Sam AP, Yuh B, Lau CS. Oncologic outcomes in robot-assisted radical
cystectomy: Where do we stand in 2021? Mini-invasive Surg 2021;5:24. https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2574-1225.2021.25

Received: 24 Feb 2021 First Decision: 31 Mar 2021 Revised: 7 Apr 2021 Accepted: 12 Apr 2021 Published: 8 May 2021

Academic Editor: Giulio Belli Copy Editor: Xi-Jun Chen Production Editor: Xi-Jun Chen

Abstract
Robot-assisted radical cystectomy is an alternative to the standard open surgical approach and has been
increasingly used to surgically treat bladder cancer. Data on oncologic outcomes for the robotic approach have
matured, and now intermediate and long-term oncologic outcomes are available. This review focuses on oncologic
outcomes of the robotic approach with a focus on recent data and high-quality studies. Based on the current
literature available, there are no consistent differences between the robotic and open approaches with respect to
positive margin rates, lymph node yields, recurrence patterns, or recurrence free, cancer-specific, and overall
survival. If oncologic surgical principles are adhered to, excellent oncologic outcomes are achievable with the
robotic approach.

Keywords: Urinary bladder neoplasms, radical cystectomy, robotic radical cystectomy, oncologic outcomes,
robotics, recurrence, survival

INTRODUCTION
Radical cystectomy and pelvic lymph node dissection is standard of care for surgically eligible patients with
non-metastatic muscle-invasive bladder cancer, and is a preferred treatment for select patients with high
[1,2]
risk of non-muscle invasive disease . While open radical cystectomy has been the recognized gold
standard for years, robot-assisted radical cystectomy (RARC) has become increasingly popular. Initially

© The Author(s) 2021. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as
long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and
indicate if changes were made.

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