A minimally invasive surgical approach developed by head and neck surgeons at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to a UPenn news release.
The da Vinci Surgical System (Intuitive Surgical Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif.) has been cleared for TransOral otolaryngologic surgical procedures to treat benign tumors and select malignant tumors in adults.

Gregory S. Weinstein, MD, and Bert W. O’Malley Jr., MD, of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine’s Department of Otorhinolaryngology: Head and Neck Surgery founded the world’s first TransOral Robotic Surgery program at Penn Medicine in 2004, where they developed and researched the TORS approach for a variety of robotic surgical neck approaches for both malignant and benign tumors of the mouth, voice box, tonsil, tongue and other parts of the throat. Since 2005, about 350 Penn patients have participated in the world’s first prospective clinical trials of TORS. These research trials compromise the largest and most comprehensive studies of the technology on record.

“TORS has dramatically improved the way we treat head and neck cancer patients, completely removing tumors while preserving speech, swallowing and other key quality of life issues,” said O’Malley, professor and chairman of Penn Medicine’s Department of Otorhinolaryngology: Head and Neck Surgery. “It is very exciting that a concept conceived at Penn, evaluated in pre-clinical experimental models at Penn, tested in clinical trials at Penn, and then taught to key surgeons and institutions both within the U.S. and internationally has been officially recognized by our federal governing agencies and peers around the world as a new and improved therapy for select neck cancers and all benign tumors.”