Mark Dylewski

About

Mark Dylewski is a pioneering thoracic surgeon whose research has fundamentally shaped the adoption and validation of robotic-assisted pulmonary surgery. With a career centered on minimally invasive thoracic techniques, Dylewski has been instrumental in establishing robotic lobectomy as a credible, safe, and effective alternative to traditional open surgery and video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) for lung cancer treatment. His early landmark contributions, including his 2010 and 2011 papers on total port-access robotic lobectomy without utility thoracotomy (86 and 164 citations respectively), helped define the technical framework that surgeons worldwide now follow. His advocacy for the robotic platform over VATS — articulated in his 2012 paper "Robotics: The Answer to the Achilles' Heel of VATS" — helped shift clinical opinion during a pivotal period of adoption. Dylewski's influence extends into multi-institutional outcomes research, most notably through the landmark PORTaL Study (2021, 119 citations; 2023), which provided critical comparative data across surgical approaches. His work on robotic resection for Stage III lung cancer further pushed boundaries by demonstrating feasibility in locally advanced disease. Collectively accumulating over 670 citations, his body of work has meaningfully guided surgical decision-making and training in modern thoracic oncology.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Pulmonary Resection Using a Total Endoscopic Robotic Video-Assisted Approach

   164 citations · 2011
2. 2
   The long-term survival of robotic lobectomy for non–small cell lung cancer: A multi-institutional study

   141 citations · 2017
3. 3
   Pulmonary Open, Robotic, and Thoracoscopic Lobectomy (PORTaL) Study

   119 citations · 2021
4. 4
   Total port-access robot-assisted pulmonary lobectomy without utility thoracotomy

   86 citations · 2010
5. 5
   Robotic resection of Stage III lung cancer: an international retrospective study†

   75 citations · 2018
6. 6
   Pulmonary Open, Robotic, and Thoracoscopic Lobectomy (PORTaL) Study

   30 citations · 2023
7. 7
   Robotics — The answer to the Achilles’ heel of VATS pulmonary resection

   25 citations · 2012
8. 8
   Robotic assisted lobectomy for locally advanced lung cancer

   14 citations · 2017
9. 9
   Robotic-assisted Heller myotomy for esophageal achalasia: feasibility, technique, and short-term outcomes

   12 citations · 2011
10. 10
    Complete Port-Access Robotic-Assisted Lobectomy Utilizing Three-Arm Technique Without a Transthoracic Utility Incision

    4 citations · 2013

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links