Man given pioneering surgery for cancer treatment

A man who dismissed signs of cancer as a mark from his golf bag has become the first patient in the UK to have robotic microsurgery, the Royal Marsden Hospital has claimed.

Nick Lees, 47, from Godalming, Surrey, eventually sought help after seeing news articles surrounding the King's cancer diagnosis.

He then discovered that he had a rare type of skin cancer "the size of two 50 pence pieces", which medics needed to urgently remove.

To aid the reconstruction of the tissue and vessels, which were damaged during the cancer-removal procedure, the hospital used robotic-assisted microsurgery.

The robot can replicate the natural movements of the human hand at the micro-scale.

Experts at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London hailed the success of the operation, saying how surprised they were that Mr Lees was able to return to work just weeks afterwards.

Mr Lees said: "I had a mark that had been on my chest for a while. It wasn't causing me any discomfort, so I got used to it.

"Around the time King Charles was having his cancer treatments there was a lot of coverage about it, so I thought: 'Oh, ok, I better go to the doctor'."

"So, I went to the GP, she didn't think it was anything, but said to get it checked out.

"I was pretty taken aback when I was told by the dermatologist, that was last thing I was expecting her to say."

Mr Lees was diagnosed with dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans - a rare type of soft tissue sarcoma - in his chest.

Sarcoma is a type of cancer that develops in the body's connective tissues including fat, muscle, nerves and blood and lymph vessels.

The procedures took place in November 2024 and he has since been given the all- clear.

The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity funded a UK-first robotic-assisted microsurgery system, called the Symani Surgical System.

Surgeon Aadil Khan said: "The Symani system is the first open microsurgery robotic system that's been developed in the world, and we are the first hospital in the UK to have it.

"What the Symani system now does is that it has robotic arms which take over that connection of blood vessels.

"So the surgeon sits remotely from the patient, looking at a screen in the same way that other robotic surgery is performed, and I have controllers in my hand that allow me to control the arms of the robot."

Additional reporting by PA Media.

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