Gynecologic oncologist Emma Rossi, MD, has been announced as national principal investigator for the Embrace Gynecology prospective multicenter clinical study to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a new robotic assisted surgery (RAS) system. The study will investigate the state-of-the-art system as a treatment option for gynecologic procedures. RAS offers patients fewer complications, shorter hospital stays and faster return to normal activities than open surgery, according to Dr. Rossi, a member of the Duke Cancer Institute.
The Embrace Gynecology study's first procedures were completed at two institutions in Pennsylvania, with the goal of evaluating the systems's safety effectiveness when used during hysterectomy procedures (radical, modified radical or total hysterectomies), inclusive of those being treated for malignancies. The study will enroll up to 70 patients across up to five U.S. hospitals.
"We are excited to initiate this important clinical study, which aims to investigate surgical treatment options for women in the U.S.," said Dr. Emma Rossi, Embrace Gynecology national principal investigator and associate professor of Ob/Gyn at Duke. "In my experience, women facing a gynecologic diagnosis want two things: to effectively treat their condition, and to get back to their full lives as quickly as possible. Robotic assisted surgery helps make that possible.”
The National Cancer Institute estimates that nearly 111,000 U.S. women will have been diagnosed with gynecological cancer by the end of 2025, while hundreds of thousands more will experience benign conditions such as fibroids or abnormal bleeding, according to the American Association for Cancer Research. Surgery is a common treatment for many of these gynecological conditions, and for some cancers, such as uterine (endometrial) cancer, it is usually the first and primary treatment, Dr. Rossi notes.