Feasibility of sentinel lymph node fluorescence detection during robotic laparoendoscopic single-site surgery in early endometrial cancer: a prospective case series

Abstract

Background: In the last few decades, the introduction of technologies such as single-site surgery, robotics, and sentinel lymph node detection has reduced invasiveness in the treatment and staging of endometrial cancer patients. The goal of the present prospective cohort study is to evaluate the feasibility of lymph node fluorescence detection with robotic single-site approach in low-risk endometrial cancer. Results: Fifteen non consecutive low-risk endometrial atypical hyperplasia (EAH) patients underwent sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy and total hysterectomy utilizing the Da Vinci Si Single-Site Surgical. System and Firefly 3D imaging. Indications for surgery included eight (53.3%) IA FIGO stage G1 EC, three (20%) IA FIGO stage G2 EC, and four (26.6%) EAH. Mean operative time was 155 min (range 112–175). One vaginal laceration was the only perioperative complication encountered, and all patients were discharged within 48 h of surgery. SLN was detected in 86.6% of cases; 1/29 (3.4%) SLN results were positive for isolated tumor cells (ITCs) at immunohistochemical analysis. Conclusions: The present study demonstrates the feasibility and applicability of robotic single-site approach with SLN fluorescence detection for the staging of low-risk endometrial cancer.