Background: Predictive models in surgery promise to improve clinical care by anticipating complications, guiding decision-making, and supporting personalized treatment strategies. Although their potential to enhance outcomes and efficiency is substantial, their integration into clinical practice also raises profound ethical challenges. Ethical Framework: These challenges span the entire lifecycle of predictive models from data collection and development to validation and clinical use. They touch upon patient privacy, algorithmic bias, transparency, and the shifting responsibilities of clinicians. Importantly, the ethical concerns are not isolated to one group but shared across patients, developers, and clinicians within a dynamic stakeholder relationship. Analysis: Key risks include biased or unrepresentative datasets, privacy breaches, opaque decision-making processes, and the danger of deskilling surgeons if reliance on algorithms becomes excessive. To mitigate these risks, strategies, such as out-of-distribution detection, standardized data collection, parallel model development, and continuous auditing, are essential. Beyond technical safeguards, embedding predictive models within a framework of accountability and patient-centered care is necessary to sustain trust and equity. Conclusion: The integration of predictive models into surgery requires more than technical excellence, and it demands ethical vigilance. Preparing future clinicians through education that emphasizes both clinical reasoning and ethical awareness is critical. By aligning predictive model development with human-centered values, healthcare systems can ensure that these innovations enhance surgical practice while safeguarding equity, transparency, and patient trust.

Background: Laparoscopic surgery for colon cancer is associated with improved recovery and similar cancer outcomes at 3 and 5 years in comparison with open surgery. However, long-term survival rates have rarely been reported. Here, we present survival and recurrence rates of the Dutch patients included in the COlon cancer Laparoscopic or Open Resection (COLOR) trial at 10-year follow-up. Methods: Between March 1997 and March 2003, patients with non-metastatic colon cancer were recruited by 29 hospitals in eight countries and randomised to either laparoscopic or open surgery. Main inclusion criterion for the COLOR trial was solitary adenocarcinoma of the left or right colon. The primary outcome was disease-free survival at 3 years, and secondary outcomes included overall survival and recurrence. The 10-year follow-up data of all Dutch patients were collected. Analysis was by intention-to-treat. The trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT00387842). Results: In total, 1248 patients were randomised, of which 329 were Dutch. Fifty-eight Dutch patients were excluded and 15 were lost to follow-up, leaving 256 patients for 10-year analysis. Median follow-up was 112 months. Disease-free survival rates were 45.2 % in the laparoscopic group and 43.2 % in the open group (difference 2.0 %; 95 % confidence interval (CI) −10.3 to 14.3; p = 0.96). Overall survival rates were 48.4 and 46.7 %, respectively (difference 1.7 %; 95 % CI −10.6 to 14.0; p = 0.83). Stage-specific analysis revealed similar survival rates for both groups. Sixty-two patients were diagnosed with recurrent disease, accounting for 29.4 % in the laparoscopic group and 28.2 % in the open group (difference 1.2 %; 95 % CI −11.1 to 13.5; p = 0.73). Seven patients had port- or wound-site recurrences (laparoscopic n = 3 vs. open n = 4). Conclusions: Laparoscopic surgery for non-metastatic colon cancer is associated with similar rates of disease-free survival, overall survival and recurrences as open surgery at 10-year follow-up.