Surgical and Patient Reported Outcomes of Robotic Nipple-Sparing Mastectomy

Plain-language summary

Nipple-sparing mastectomy (NSM) with immediate reconstruction is one of the standard of care surgical treatments of breast cancer (BC) and is used for risk reduction in patients with a high risk for BC. While this method shows satisfactory oncologic and good cosmetic outcomes, its drawbacks include compromise of the skin flap vascularization due to skin incision, nipple-areolar complex (NAC) malposition/distortion and visible scar on the breast. NSM also has technical challenges of dissecting and removing larger specimens through limited incisions and concerns regarding oncologic effectiveness due to difficulties in visualizing regions of the breast remote from the incision. To improve cosmetic outcomes after NSM, a modification of this technique using a surgical robotic system was recently described. In a limited number of studies, the robotic NSM (RNSM) with immediate prosthetic breast reconstruction (IPBR) was shown to be feasible and safe, as well as led to excellent cosmetic outcomes and patient satisfaction. There are limited number of centers in North America and none in Canada that offer RNSM-IPBR. The investigators hypothesize that RNSM-IPBR is a feasible and safe technique that can be utilized in our institution and that it can provide superior cosmetic outcomes with less morbidity and higher patient satisfaction compared to the traditional NSM-IPBR. The aim is to conduct a single-arm prospective study to investigate the safety and feasibility, as well as cosmetic, surgical complication and patient satisfaction parameters of NSM-IPBR performed in the University Health Network (UHN). This study will serve a foundation for potential introduction of a novel surgical approach in our institution and will make it available for treatment and prevention of breast cancer in Canadian women. The study will also serve as pilot data for future potential studies, including randomized-controlled trials (RCT) comparing RNSM with conventional NSM. As such, the study will further our approach to innovation in breast surgical oncology within Canada and North America.

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