Oh, robots. What can't they do? When they're not vacuuming our floors or creepily impersonating our pets, they're delicately cutting tumors off of our larynxes. 

Doctors at the Mayo Clinic were able to use robotic surgery to successfully treat supraglottic squamous cell carcinoma, a cancer that settles in above the vocal cords in a way that's traditionally been tricky to reach. A study of the procedure demonstrated that it was effective in removing the cancer.

Of course, the robot isn't actually removing the cancer on its own; a surgeon still has to operate it.

From the press release:

...the robotic arms that enter the mouth include a thin camera, an arm with a cautery or laser, and an arm with a gripping tool to retract and grasp tissue. The surgeon sits at a console, controlling the instruments and viewing the three-dimensional surgical field on a screen.

Doctors are optimistic that robotic surgery will give them a big boost in the fight against throat cancer.

– Thomas Blair