Long-Term Survival Following Minimally Invasive Lung Cancer Surgery: Comparing Robotic-Assisted and Video-Assisted Surgery

Background: Nowadays, video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) and robotic-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (RATS) are known to be safe and efficient surgical procedures to treat early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We assessed whether RATS increased disease-free survival (DFS) compared with VATS for lobectomy and segmentectomy. Methods: This retrospective cohort study included patients treated for resectable NSCLC performed by RATS or VATS, in our tertiary care center from 2012 to 2019. Patients’ data were prospectively recorded and reviewed in the French EPITHOR database. Primary outcomes were 5-year DFS for lobectomy and 3-year DFS for segmentectomy, compared by propensity-score adjusted difference of Kaplan–Meier estimates. Results: Among 844 lung resections, 436 VATS and 234 RATS lobectomies and 46 VATS and 128 RATS segmentectomies were performed. For lobectomy, the adjusted 5-year DFS was 60.9% (95% confidence interval (CI) 52.9–68.8%) for VATS and 52.7% (95%CI 41.7–63.7%) for RATS, with a difference estimated at −8.3% (−22.2–+4.9%, p = 0.24). For segmentectomy, the adjusted 3-year DFS was 84.6% (95%CI 69.8–99.0%) for VATS and 72.9% (95%CI 50.6–92.4%) for RATS, with a difference estimated at −11.7% (−38.7–+7.8%, p = 0.21). Conclusions: RATS failed to show its superiority over VATS for resectable NSCLC