In a groundbreaking medical achievement, a team led by Dr Zhang Xu performed the world’s first live transcontinental robotic prostate cancer surgery — with the surgeon physically located in Rome (Italy) and the patient in Beijing (China).
The operation took place while Dr Zhang oversaw the robotic console remotely from Rome, guiding robotic arms in Beijing to remove a cancerous prostate in real time. The distance between the two cities is more than 8,000 km (about 5,000 miles).
Key to the success of this procedure was ultra-reliable connectivity: a mix of high-speed 5G mobile network and fibre-optic links kept latency below 135 milliseconds, making remote manipulation of surgical tools feel nearly like being in the same room.
Why this matters
Remote or “telesurgery” has long been a promising but challenging frontier in medicine. While robotic surgery itself is well established, controlling surgical robots from another continent introduces serious hurdles — especially communication delay and reliability. By overcoming those hurdles, this procedure pushes the field forward significantly.
Dr Zhang described the experience as being “almost the same as on-site surgery,” and noted that one of the greatest technical challenges was ensuring the signal delay stayed so low that the surgeon’s commands and the robot’s responses remained in sync.
How it worked
The patient was at the People’s Liberation Army General Hospital in Beijing, accompanied by an on-site medical team and a backup surgeon.
Dr Zhang operated from a console in Rome, controlling the surgical robot’s arms in Beijing.
Real-time video feed, instrument feedback and robotic responses were transmitted via the combined 5 G and fibre links.
The removal of the prostate cancer lesion proceeded smoothly, and the data suggests that the remote control was precise and safe.
Potential impact
This achievement opens up several possibilities:
Surgeons highly specialised in particular cancers could operate on patients in remote or underserved areas without needing to relocate the patient or the surgeon.
In conflict zones, disaster areas or remote regions, expert care could be delivered remotely when local surgical capacity is limited.
Hospitals might share resources more easily: a centre of excellence could extend its reach globally, helping reduce geographical disparities in access to advanced surgical care.
Things to watch
Of course, this is not yet standard practice. Some of the challenges ahead include:
Ensuring ultra-low latency and high reliability of networks in various geographies (both urban and rural).
Handling technical failures or emergencies when the surgeon is remote; backup teams must be ready on site.
Training medical and technical teams for these hybrid operations (robotics + telecommunications).
Addressing regulatory, legal and liability questions across countries (which surgeon is responsible if something goes wrong, how to credential cross-border practice).
The Roman-to-Beijing procedure marks a milestone in surgical innovation. While one patient and one kind of surgery don’t rewrite the rulebook overnight, this successful demonstration shows that geography need not always limit access to top-tier surgical expertise. For patients and medical systems alike, that could translate into more equitable care, faster access to specialist operations and new models of global health collaboration.
In short: the future of surgery may indeed be borderless.