Surgical Oncology: The Basics

Surgical oncology is the use of surgery to treat cancer. Surgery can be used by itself to treat cancer, or it can be done with other treatments. Not all cancers can be treated with surgery. In some cases, you may not be healthy enough to have surgery. Your team will talk to you about if surgery is right for you.

Surgery for cancer is used to:

• Diagnose and stage cancer.
• Treat cancer:
  • By removing the whole cancer (tumor/mass).
  • By removing some, but not all of the tumor. A surgeon may not be able to remove all of the cancer because it could harm other parts of your body. This is called a debulking surgery.
• Help manage symptoms caused by the cancer. This is called palliative surgery.
• To reconstruct or restore your body after surgery. Examples of this type of surgery are breast reconstruction or reversal of a colostomy.

How is surgery used with other treatments?

Sometimes surgery is used with other treatments. These can be chemotherapy, biologic, targeted or immune therapies, radiation therapy, and hormone therapy.

• Neoadjuvant surgery– The surgery is done after some other treatment. In some cases, more treatment will also be given after the surgery.
• Adjuvant surgery– The surgery is done before the other treatments.

What are the risks of surgery?

All surgery has risks. These can be:

• Pain.
• Infection.
• Your wound taking a long time to heal.
• Bleeding.

Each cancer surgery is different. Your surgeon will talk with you about the risks and benefits of your surgery.