REVIEW article
Front. Surg.
Sec. Thoracic Surgery
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsurg.2025.1566902
This article is part of the Research Topic10th Anniversary of Frontiers in Surgery: Celebrating Progress and Envisioning the Future of Multidisciplinary SurgeryView all 10 articles
Robotic-assisted Bronchoscopy - Advancing Lung Cancer Management
Provisionally accepted
- The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, China
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The incidental discovery of early-stage, multifocal lung cancer is transforming the medical landscape. Diagnosing and treating such lesions are often troublesome due to their small size, subsolid consistency, and multifocal nature. This has led to the development of electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy, which enhanced the ease of navigation and improved localization accuracy during diagnostic procedures. Moreover, it opens the door for intricate transbronchial therapeutic procedures thanks to the superior navigational precision. To further automate navigation and increase maneuverability, robotic-assisted bronchoscopy was developed in recent years, where the robotic arms allow a high level of control and stability of the bronchoscope.Recent evidence has shown that the maneuverability, steadiness, and localization accuracy offered by robotic-assisted bronchoscopy systems with the navigation system allow operators to navigate narrower airways and perform complex interventions with great precision. This review illustrates the development, advantages, and applications of various robotic bronchoscopy systems with the latest evidence. We explore the promising future of roboticassisted bronchoscopy, where such procedures are anticipated to play an essential role in the multidisciplinary management pathway.
Keywords: lung cancer, Robotic assisted biopsy, Electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy, Multidisciplinar approach, Robotic bronchoscopy, Hybrid operating room, transbronchial ablation
Received: 26 Jan 2025; Accepted: 06 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chang, Chan, Siu, Liu, Lau and Ng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Calvin Sze Hang Ng, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, China
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