An endoscopic imaging system (10) employing an endoscope (20) and an endoscope guidance controller (30). In operation, endoscope (20) generates an endoscopic video (23) of an anatomical structure within an anatomical region. Endoscopic guidance controller (30), responsive to a registration between the endoscopic video (23) and a volume image (44) of the anatomical region, controls a user interaction (50) with a graphical user interface (31) including one or more interactive planar slices (32) of the volume image (44), and responsive to the user interaction (50) with the graphical user interface (31), endoscopic guidance controller (30) controls a positioning of the endoscope (20) relative to the anatomical structure derived from the interactive planar slices (32) of the volume image (44). A robotic endoscopic imaging system (11) incorporates a robot (23) in the endoscopic imaging system (10) whereby endoscope guidance controller (30) controls a positioning by robot (23) of the endoscope (20) relative to the anatomical structure.