Patient stories

The women behind the outcome numbers

Illustrative journeys through the programme - the kinds of cases robot-assisted breast surgery fits, and what the recovery actually looks like. Individual results depend on clinical circumstances discussed at consultation.

Early-stage · NSM42-year-old · upfront surgery

I was terrified I would lose my breast. Instead the scar is hidden, I have my sensation, and the cancer is gone. I feel whole.

Procedure

Robotic nipple-sparing mastectomy

Arc

Diagnosed with a 2.4 cm ER-positive tumour on routine screening, this patient came in for a second opinion after being told a total mastectomy was the only safe option locally. Imaging review showed nipple involvement was not present. She had an upfront robotic nipple-sparing mastectomy with immediate implant reconstruction. Clear margins, preserved nipple sensation, back to office work at 3 weeks.

Post-NACT · Firefly49-year-old · HER2-positive, post-NACT complete responder

My tumour had vanished on the scans after chemo. The glowing dye let them find exactly where it had been and remove it precisely.

Procedure

ICG-Firefly guided excision

Arc

HER2-positive T2N1 disease that responded completely to neo-adjuvant chemotherapy plus trastuzumab-pertuzumab. The tumour bed was no longer palpable on examination, and the pre-op MRI showed only a biopsy clip. ICG dye was injected around the clip and the residual bed was excised under Firefly guidance. Pathology confirmed a pathological complete response.

Reconstruction · Robotic LD flap55-year-old · mastectomy + immediate reconstruction

They rebuilt my breast using tissue from my back - but there is no scar on my back at all. People cannot believe I had surgery.

Procedure

Robotic latissimus dorsi flap reconstruction

Arc

Multifocal invasive lobular cancer requiring mastectomy. She had rejected LD reconstruction twice previously - because of the back scar. The robotic approach harvested the muscle through the axillary port used for the mastectomy, without any incision on the back. Reconstruction was performed in the same anaesthesia. She returned to a full range of shoulder motion at 8 weeks.

Young patient · Phyllodes19-year-old · borderline phyllodes tumour

At 19, the thought of a visible scar was devastating. The robotic approach removed the tumour and left almost nothing to see.

Procedure

Robotic oncoplastic excision (borderline phyllodes)

Arc

A rapidly-growing 5 cm phyllodes tumour in a nulliparous 19-year-old. The tumour needed wide excision for margin control, but a conventional wide-local-excision would have left a visible scar on a young breast that had years of change ahead of it. The robotic oncoplastic approach excised the lesion with clear margins and reshaped the residual breast through a concealed circumareolar port.

Illustrative summaries of consented patient experiences. Names and identifying detail are withheld; the clinical arcs mirror real cases from the programme. Outcomes and eligibility are always discussed individually at consultation.

Published outcomes

What the numbers behind these stories look like

These outcomes come from the published nine-patient series submitted for peer review (2026). The cohort will grow; the methodology (frozen-section confirmation, per-case MRI follow-up) does not change.

100%

Negative surgical margins in the published series

Re-excision rate - the precision removes the guesswork

Recurrence at follow-up in the published cohort

70 min

Mean operative time, with no intra-operative complications

Reference: M. S. Malhotra, H. Singh · Robotic-Assisted Excision of Non-Palpable Breast Lesions Using ICG-Guided Firefly Imaging (2026, under peer review).

Sharing your journey

How stories on this page are collected

Every named story you see here starts as a conversation, not a request. If you would like to be featured, this is how it works.

Consent, always

Every named story is shared with explicit written consent. Anonymised summaries are used to describe the shape of a case without exposing identifying detail.

Photos when appropriate

Pre- and post-op photography is offered - not required - and only shared with your control over what appears and where.

You choose the arc

What matters to you might be the outcome, the recovery, the way the decision was made, or the family around you. The story we publish is the one you would tell.

Every story here began with a case review

Share your imaging, pathology, and molecular reports - the team returns a written view of what robot-assisted breast preservation looks like for your specific case.

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