Cancer Surgery

Cancer surgery is an operation or procedure to take out a tumor and possibly some nearby tissue. It is the oldest kind of cancer treatment, and it still works well to treat many types of cancer today.

You might have surgery to remove a tumor, help your body work the way it used to, or relieve side effects. 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.

Your surgery may require medication to block the awareness of pain, called anesthesia. There are different types of anesthesia depending on the type and extent of the surgery. If you need to stay in the hospital overnight or for several days after surgery, it is called inpatient surgery. Or you might not need to stay in the hospital at all. If you can go home the same day, it is called outpatient surgery or ambulatory surgery.

Different types of cancer surgery?

Surgery can be done for many different reasons in a person's cancer care.

• Diagnosis: A biopsy is the main way to diagnose many types of cancer. There are different kinds of biopsies. For some types, your doctor will make a small cut in the skin to remove some tissue. They may take a small sample or the entire tumor. Other types of biopsies, including fine needle aspiration and image-guided biopsies, use needles for less invasive procedures.

• Staging: Staging surgery is done to learn how large the tumor is, if it has spread, and if so, where. Your doctor may remove the entire tumor or take a sample. They may also take some lymph nodes near the cancer to learn if it has spread. Surgical removal of lymph nodes is also called a lymphadenectomy. Your lymph nodes are small, bean-shaped organs that help fight infection. They are often the first place a cancer spreads. As imaging scans get more advanced, more and more staging is done using imaging studies like ultrasounds, CT scans, MRIs, and X-rays.

• Tumor removal: Removing a tumor is a common type of cancer surgery. This may also be called a "resection" or "excision." Your doctor usually takes out the tumor and some of the healthy tissue near it. The tissue around the tumor is called the margin.

• Debulking: Debulking is a surgery that removes part, but not all, of a tumor. Your doctor may not always be able to remove the entire tumor. It might damage other parts of your body or it might be too large. Debulking removes as much of the tumor as possible. Chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or other treatments might be given before or after this type of surgery. This can help shrink the tumor and treat the cancer.

• Reconstructive surgery: Treating cancer can change the way you look or how your body works. Reconstructive surgery can help with the effects of cancer treatment. Sometimes, reconstructive surgery is done at the same time the tumor is removed. Or you might wait until you have healed or had other treatments. Examples of reconstructive surgery include breast reconstruction after a mastectomy and surgery to restore appearance and function after head and neck surgery.

How your surgeon does your operation

There are different ways of doing cancer surgery. Sometimes surgeons combine these. You might have:

• Open surgery: The surgeon makes a large cut (incision) through the skin

• keyhole (laparoscopic) The surgeon makes several small cuts through the skin and uses a laparoscope Open a glossary itemto look inside your body and remove tissue through the cuts

• Robotic Surgery : The surgeon uses a robotic machine to help with keyhole surgery

• Endoscopic surgery The surgeon removes or destroys tissue through a tube (endoscope) which they pass into your body, usually through your mouth or back passage (rectum)