Esophagectomy is associated with substantial morbidity. Robotic surgery allows complex resections to be performed with potential benefits over conventional techniques. We applied this technology to transthoracic esophagectomy to assess safety, feasibility, and reliability of this technology. A retrospective cohort study of all patients undergoing robotic-assisted Ivor–Lewis esophagectomy (RAIL) from 2009 to 2014 was conducted. Clinicopathologic factors and surgical outcomes were recorded and compared. All statistical tests were two-sided and a P-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. We identified 147 patients with an average age 66 ± 10 years. Neoadjuvant therapy was administered to 114 (77.6%) patients, and all patients underwent a R0 resection. The mean operating room (OR) time was 415 ± 84.6 minutes with a median estimated blood loss (EBL) of 150 (25–600) mL. Mean intensive care unit (ICU) stay was 2.00 ± 4.5 days, median length of hospitalization (LOH) was 9 (4–38) days, and readmissions within 90 days were low at 8 (5.5%). OR time decreased from 471 minutes to 389 minutes after 20 cases and a further decrease to mean of 346 minutes was observed after 120 cases. Complications occurred in 37 patients (25.2%). There were 4 anastomotic (2.7%) leaks. Thirty and 90-day mortality was 0.68% and 1.4%, respectively. This represents to our knowledge the largest series of robotic esophagectomies. RAIL is a safe surgical technique that provides an alternative to standard minimally invasive and open techniques. In our series, there was no increased risk of LOH, complications, or death and re-admission rates were low despite earlier discharge.

Background: We sought to determine the effects of post-operative radiation therapy (PORT) and lymph node resection (LNR) on survival in patients ≥70 years with pancreatic cancer treated with surgery and chemotherapy. Methods: An analysis of patients ≥70 years with surgically resected pancreatic cancer who received chemotherapy from the SEER database between 2004–2008 was performed to determine association of PORT and LNR on survival. Results: We identified 961 patients who met inclusion criteria. There was a trend towards increased survival associated with PORT in all patients (P=0.052) and N1 patients (P=0.060) but no benefit in N0 patients (P=0.161). There was no difference in OS based on number of lymph nodes removed in all (P=0.741), N0 (P=0.588), and N1 (P=0.070) patients. MVA for all patients revealed that higher T stage, N1, and high grade tumors were prognostic for increased mortality, while there was decreased mortality with PORT and mild benefit with increased lymph nodes resected (P=0.084). Conclusions: PORT demonstrated no benefit in survival of pancreatic cancer patients ≥70 who are resected and treated with adjuvant chemotherapy. Future investigation will need to address age as a stratification factor for pancreatic cancer in the adjuvant setting.