Cancer surgery is terms that always make cancer patients feel anxious. Most surgeries used in cancer cure involve the removal of either individual tumors or an entire organ. The concept of the operation is that surgery has the ability to completely eliminate cancerous cells.

cancer surgeryCancer surgery is one of common treatment to cure prostate and breast cancer. However, it is not advisable for certain types of cancer which involving vital organs. It could be the only treatment for a patient or it may be supplemented with other cancer treatment like chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone therapy.

Surgeons may use cancer surgery to achieve several objectives, from diagnosing patients’ cancer to treating it to relieving the symptoms it causes. The common reasons why cancer surgery used in cancer cure includes:

• Diagnosis Cancer – Surgeons use a form of cancer surgery to remove all or part of a tumor to determine whether the growth is malignant (cancerous) or benign (noncancerous). This is so called a biopsy.

• Staging Cancer – Cancer surgery helps surgeons to define a patient’s cancer stage and determine whether it’s traveled to lymph nodes.

• Treatment to Cure Cancer – If the cancer is localized and has not spread, then cancer surgery can be a right treatment option in cancer cure. On the other hand, cancer patients may have to undergo adjuvant Treatment that works throughout patients’ body such as chemotherapy if cancer has spread to another part of their body.

• Lower Cancer Risk – Cancer surgery also plan an important role in cancer prevention. Surgeons may advise a patient to remove certain tissues or organs if the patient is at high risk of a particular type of cancer. For instant, surgeons may recommend their patients to remove colon to reduce the risk of colon cancer if those people have a rare inherited condition called Familial Adenomatous Polyposis (FAP).

• Reconstruct Body Part – Patients are allowed to reconstruct their body using prosthesis or their other body tissues. For instant, breast cancer patients are possible to have breast reconstruction after mastectomy.

• Control Cancer Symptoms – Surgeons may advise cancer patients to undergo surgery in order to relieve symptoms if their cancer cannot be cure completely. For instant, to control pain caused by a tumor that’s pressing on a nerve or remove liver tumors of colon cancer patients who have cancer spread to the liver.

• Debulking – Some cancer surgeries are done so that patients can have other treatments in cancer cure. Surgeons may make decision to remove cancerous tumor as much as possible (which so-called debulking) when it is impossible to remove all cancerous tumor with the purpose of increasing effectiveness of chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

Whether a patient undergoes cancer surgery as only treatment or combined with other cancer treatment depends on type of cancer and its stage.

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