Cancer Treatments

Surgery

Preventive surgery is used to keep cancer from occurring. Many colon cancers can be prevented by removing precancerous polyps before they become malignant. A woman at very high risk for breast cancer may decide to have her breasts removed rather than worry about getting breast cancer later in life. Click here for more information on the da Vinci S Surgical System, the second generation of robotic surgical systems.

Diagnostic surgery is also known as a biopsy. In this procedure, the surgeon removes some or all of a tumor for examination to determine if the growth is cancerous. A biopsy can be done in several ways, such as:

Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA): a needle is inserted into the tumor and tissue is drawn out for examination under a microscope.

Incisional or Excisional Biopsy: A small incision is made in the skin. The surgeon either removes a piece of a large tumor (incisional), or the entire mass (excisional), for further examination.

Staging surgery is used to determine the extent of a cancer. This procedure can sometimes be done without an incision by using tiny cameras (scopes) attached to a flexible tube, which are inserted into natural body openings. Besides allowing surgeons to view the suspicious area, these devices can take a tissue sample.

Curative surgery simply involves removal of a cancerous tumor. It works best on localized cancers that haven't yet spread to other parts of the body.

Supportive surgery is used to help with other cancer treatments. For example, some chemotherapy devices require a port (connecting device) to be inserted under the skin.

Restorative surgery returns the body to normal or near normal appearance or function following cancer treatment. The most common restorative surgery is reconstruction of a breast after a mastectomy. Facial reconstruction and testicular implants are also examples of restorative surgery.

Palliative surgery is only used to ease pain, disability or other complications that come with advanced cancer. Palliative surgery may improve quality of life, but is not a cure or anticancer treatment.