MARS 2 is the world's only multicentre randomised clinical trial to evaluate the feasibility of recruiting into a trial of surgery for malignant pleural mesothelioma.

2016 has certainly been an exciting year for the trial as we achieved both feasibility endpoints which is the ability to randomise 25 patients in any 6 months or 50 patients within 24 months. As of the 5 December 2016 (during the World Conference of Lung Cancer) the 50th participant was randomised 5 months ahead of schedule allowing us to declare the trial "feasible"!

When we talk about robotic surgery, to the patient it conjures up futuristic images of a technologically sophisticated robot doing the operation instead of a (human) surgeon.

For lung cancer surgery, the reality is that a surgeon is either doing the operation using keyhole surgery directly, or through “remote control” using smaller and internal articulating “robotic” instruments and camera visualisation. I think there are a number of comparable similarities and differences. 

I read with astonishment on UK national data on the risk of death for chemotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer in the Lancet Oncology today.[1] I was practicing under the assumption that chemotherapy is the lower risk option presented to patients who were not comfortable with the risk of death from surgery. Having compared the outcomes of the two modalities of treatment I was certainly surprised if not shocked...

Technology continues to improve and as surgeon we move along with it, but it is often difficult to determine what is a meaningful improvement over what we currently do.