The surgical team performs the operation with the assistance of a remote-controlled surgical robot on May 22, 2026. Photo: Jimu News

An academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) successfully performed a prostate cancer surgery on a patient 220 kilometers away from him in Jingzhou, Central China's Hubei Province, by remotely operating a surgical robot via a 5G network, Jimu News reported. 

Using clear endoscopic images displayed on a large screen, Zhang Xu, an academician at the CAS, operating from a control console at Tongji Hospital affiliated with Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) located in Wuhan, Hubei, precisely manipulated robotic arms to perform the surgery on the patient surnamed Cao, according to Jimu News.

The display screen showed that the system recorded a network round-trip latency of just nine milliseconds - the complete round-trip time from the doctor issuing an operation command to the surgical robot responding and the doctor receiving feedback, such as image transmission, was only nine milliseconds, or 0.009 seconds, Jimu News reported. 

According to Liao Yixiang, director of the Urology Department at Jingzhou Central Hospital, the 57-year-old patient had early-stage intermediate-risk prostate cancer, and the remote robotic surgery helped preserve his urinary and other functions through advanced precision techniques, Jimu News reported.

With close cooperation between the medical teams in the two locations, Cao's prostate tumor was safely and completely removed in about one hour, with minimal bleeding and no intestinal damage, which is expected to help the patient recover faster and return to normal life sooner, per Jimu News. 

Global Times