What does surgery treat

Ask your doctor what all your surgical options are and how they compare to each other in terms of treatment effectiveness, side effects, recovery time, and cost. Before your cancer surgery, your health care team will provide you with important details, such as where the surgery will take place, when to arrive, any necessary pre-surgery preparations, and post-surgery recovery and follow-up care.

Ask questions about anything that is not clear or any additional questions or concerns you may have. Knowing what to expect throughout this process can help you feel less nervous and help regain a sense of control during this time of uncertainty. Below are a list of questions to consider asking when preparing for your cancer surgery and recovery.

If I am very nervous or anxious about having this surgery, what are ways I can cope with these feelings? What side effects should I watch for after the surgery? Will I need rehabilitative services , such as physical therapy? What to Expect When Having Surgery. Side Effects of Surgery. Making Decisions About Cancer Treatment. National Cancer Institute: Surgery for Cancer.

Request Permissions. What is Cancer Surgery? Approved by the Cancer. You might also need surgery to find out: If you have cancer Where the cancer is located If it has spread or is affecting other organs in the body Surgery can be performed in a doctor's office, clinic, surgery center, or hospital.

What are the different types of cancer surgery? Surgery can be done for many different reasons in a person's cancer care. Examples are operations that can: Relieve nerve pain or pressure Remove a block in the digestive system or other area Stop bleeding Put in a feeding tube or port for medication Prevent broken bones Reconstructive surgery.

Are there differences in surgical techniques? Laser surgery. A narrow beam of high-intensity light is used to destroy tissue. Liquid nitrogen is used to freeze and kill abnormal cells.

Questions to ask the health care team Before your cancer surgery, your health care team will provide you with important details, such as where the surgery will take place, when to arrive, any necessary pre-surgery preparations, and post-surgery recovery and follow-up care. What is the purpose of this surgery? What tissue will be removed? Will I need further tests or scans to help plan my surgery?

What will we learn about the tumor by doing this surgery? When will I get those results? Will I need to have any cancer treatments in addition to surgery? What types of surgical options are available to me?

How do they compare? Which surgical approach do you recommend for me? What will my surgery be like? How long will the operation take? Who will perform this surgery? How experienced is the surgeon in this type of operation? What type of anesthesia will I receive? What are the possible complications from this surgery? Will I need someone to drive me home after this surgery?

Will I need to stay overnight or longer in the hospital? What is the cost of this surgery under my health insurance plan? Who should I contact about any side effects I experience?

How soon? Are there side effects that I should tell you about right away? Who should I contact if I have a question or need help after hours? What will my recovery be like? Will I need help at home during my recovery? For how long? Are there things I can do at home to help my recovery?

Are there things I should avoid doing during my recovery? This procedure is called a biopsy. Biopsies taken during surgery are often referred to as surgical biopsies.

How a sample is taken depends on where the tumor is and what type of cancer is suspected. For example, the method used for prostate biopsies is different from those used for lung biopsies. Staging surgery is done to find out how much cancer there is and how far it has spread.

During this surgery, the area around the cancer including lymph nodes and nearby organs is examined. This is important because it provides information to guide future treatment decisions and predict how people will respond to treatment. To learn more about this, see Cancer Staging.

It is called "curative" because the purpose of the surgery is to remove all of the cancer completely. In this case, surgery can be the main treatment. It may be used along with other treatments like chemotherapy or radiation therapy given before or after the operation, but surgery can also be used alone. They can also use surgery to find out the stage of the cancer, which describes the amount of cancer in the body.

For example, surgery can be used to collect a sample of tissue from the body to be examined under a microscope called a biopsy to see if there are cancer cells. Also, when a tumour is removed with surgery, it can be examined to stage the cancer and help develop a treatment plan. A pathologist will use a microscope to examine the biopsy sample or the tumour and surrounding tissues removed during surgery.

A pathologist is a doctor who specializes in the causes and nature of disease. The pathologist will find out: the exact type of cancer the grade of the cancer if the cancer cells that are seen in any part of the tissue that is removed are also present in the edges of the tissue called positive surgical margins if any of the lymph nodes near the tumour have cancer in them.

After getting the pathology report, doctors will decide if more treatment is needed and what type of treatments to offer. The main goal of surgery to treat cancer is to completely remove the tumour or cancerous tissue from a specific place in the body. Surgery may also be used to treat cancer that has spread from where it started called the primary site, or primary tumour to other parts of the body.

The new tumour is called a metastasis, or secondary tumour. During surgery to remove cancer, the surgeon will also remove a small amount of normal tissue all around the cancer called the surgical margin. This is done to make sure that there are no cancer cells left behind. If cancer cells cannot be completely removed, they can cause the cancer to come back.

The amount of normal tissue removed depends on the type and location of the tumour. Surgeons use normal vision and visual aids such as a microscope to make sure all the tissue affected by cancer along with a safety margin is removed. Depending on the type of cancer, the surgeon may also remove lymph nodes close to the tumour. Surgery to remove lymph nodes is called a lymph node dissection.

The lymph nodes are sent to a lab to be examined under a microscope to see if they have cancer cells in them. If the lymph nodes are not removed and they contain cancer cells, these cells may form new tumours or spread to other parts of the body. Surgery to reduce the number of cancer cells in the body is called cytoreductive surgery.

Cytoreductive surgery may make chemotherapy and radiation therapy more effective. Surgeons try to avoid cutting into or across the tumour when they do surgery to remove a tumour or metastasis. This lowers the chance that the cancer cells will be scattered and spread to other structures. During a biopsy, surgeons also mark the track along which the biopsy was done. Then they remove the biopsy track during surgery to remove the cancer.

Removing the biopsy track lowers the chance that any cancer cells are left behind. Surgeons will try to do as little damage as possible during surgery to remove cancer. They will try to limit how much tissue they remove, or the extent of surgery, when possible. For example, they may use a biopsy to find the sentinel lymph node, which is the first lymph node that cancer is likely to spread to from the original, or primary, site. Finding no cancer cells in the sentinel lymph node means that surgeons can avoid removing all the lymph nodes in a certain area.

When possible, surgeons will use less invasive approaches that can be done through smaller incisions cuts , such as laparoscopic surgery. They will also try to lessen or prevent side effects, or complications, of surgery by carefully repairing any tissue damaged during surgery. This includes sealing off blood vessels and avoiding injury to nearby organs.

Palliative surgery is surgery used to relieve symptoms and improve the quality of life. For example, surgery is sometimes used to create a bypass around a blocked, or obstructed, organ. It can also be used to relieve pain or pressure caused by a tumour. The surgeon will discuss the risks and benefits of doing surgery, especially when the overall goal is to control symptoms and improve the quality of life rather than treat the disease.

In addition to removing the cancer with a small margin of normal tissue around it, surgeons may also remove other nearby normal structures.