Groundbreaking Study in Laparoscopic Colon Surgery

In 1993, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Washington, DC, decided to investigate whether laparoscopic surgery for colon cancer was just as effective as or perhaps even preferable to traditional open surgery. The resulting study, which was conducted between 1993 and 2001 and directed by the Mayo Clinic, included surgeons at 48 different institutions and 872 patients from across the country. Dr. Charles Kim, of St. Joseph’s Hospital, was the sole surgeon from Maryland chosen for this first major study of the potential benefits of laparoscopic colon surgery.

The study’s findings were finally published in the May 13, 2004 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine in an article entitled “Comparison of Laparoscopically Assisted and Open Colectomy for Colon Cancer” authored by The Clinical Outcomes of Surgical Therapy Study Group (NEJM, May 13, 2004, Vol. 350, No. 20, pp. 2050-2059).

“All over the world, they are waiting for the results of this study,” says Dr. Kim. The study concludes that laparoscopic colon surgery, which is minimally invasive, offers an excellent alternative to traditional open surgery. This is true for several reasons, including the fact that a patient’s hospital stay and recovery time is drastically reduced. The study’s authors say, “Our finding that it is safe to proceed with laparoscopic colectomy in cancer patients strongly supports that for the future of surgery, less is more.”

This study has opened the doors for further study and development of laparoscopic colon surgery, which was first conducted in 1991.