Robotic thoracic surgery offers a minimally invasive option for some patients who require chest surgery, explains Mark Crye, MD, left, an assistant professor of surgery at Upstate. Instead of opening a patient's chest, surgeons make small incisions, which means patients heal more quickly and go home from the hospital faster. Crye says early research indicates minimally invasive procedures can remove cancer just as safely and efficiently as open surgeries and with less blood loss.