Robotic surgeon precisely removes cancerous tumors from the tongue better than human surgeons

Good news! Of all organs! However, progress seems slow!

Caveat: They used separated, dead pig tongues!

They need to remove 5mm of healthy tissue! That is a lot!

"... Precise in this case is 5mm of healthy tissue—the standard surgeons aim for when removing cancerous tissue. That 5mm—about the size of an eraser at the end of a pencil—is enough to ensure that the affected cells are included while keeping the overall damage minimal. Complicating things is the fact that cancerous tumors can often present as having visible horizontal borders on the edges, but less obvious vertical borders. ...
ASTR works by translating human guidance into robotic precision. Using porcine tongue tissue, the team drew outlines of tumors based on empirical research and programmed ASTR to remove the tumor and exactly 5mm of healthy tissue using its combination of vacuum grasping and cutting. ASTR succeeded each time and did not require stoppage by the supervisors. ..."

From the abstract:

"Head and neck cancers are the seventh most common cancers worldwide, with squamous cell carcinoma being the most prevalent histologic subtype. Surgical resection is a primary treatment modality for many patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, and accurately identifying tumor boundaries and ensuring sufficient resection margins are critical for optimizing oncologic outcomes. This letter presents an innovative autonomous system for tumor resection (ASTR) and conducts a feasibility study by performing supervised autonomous midline partial glossectomy for pseudotumor with millimeter accuracy. The proposed ASTR system consists of a dual-camera vision system, an electrosurgical instrument, a newly developed vacuum grasping instrument, two 6-DOF manipulators, and a novel autonomous control system. The letter introduces an ontology-based research framework for creating and implementing a complex autonomous surgical workflow, using the glossectomy as a case study. Porcine tongue tissues are used in this study, and marked using color inks and near-infrared fluorescent (NIRF) markers to indicate the pseudotumor. ASTR actively monitors the NIRF markers and gathers spatial and color data from the samples, enabling planning and execution of robot trajectories in accordance with the proposed glossectomy workflow. The system successfully performs six consecutive supervised autonomous pseudotumor resections on porcine specimens. The average surface and depth resection errors measure "

Robotic surgeon precisely removes cancerous tumors | Hub The Autonomous System for Tumor Resection, designed by a team of Johns Hopkins researchers, can remove tumors from the tongue with accuracy rivaling—or even potentially exceeding—that of human surgeons

Autonomous System for Tumor Resection (ASTR) - Dual-Arm Robotic Midline Partial Glossectomy (no public access)

Images of the (b) monopolar electrosurgical instrument, (c) vacuum grasping instrument, d) dual-camera vision system, sample holder, grounding pad, smoke evacuation tube, linear motion stage, and (e) simulated clinical setting featuring a porcine tongue specimen stretched using retraction sutures. The close views during the (f) surface incision, and (g) deep margin dissection for a pseudotumor on a porcine tongue tissue.