Medical Illustrations by Patrick Lynch, generated for multimedia teaching projects by the Yale University School of Medicine, Center for Advanced Instructional Media, 1987-2000.

Cancer surgery is the removal of cancer-affected tissue or tumour components in order to prevent the disease from spreading further. You may need surgery to restore your body’s function or alleviate side effects.

Types of cancer surgeries

Biopsy

Many kinds of cancer are diagnosed via a biopsy. In some situations, your doctor may need to make a small skin cut to remove tissue. Biopsies occur in a range of shapes and sizes. Your doctor may need to make a small cut in the skin to remove some tissue in some cases. They may remove a tiny portion of the tumour or the complete tumour.

Staging

Staging surgery is used to evaluate the size of a tumour, whether it has spread, and where it has spread. Your doctor may choose to remove the entire tumour or just a sample of it. They may also extract lymph nodes from around the malignancy to see if it has spread.

Tumour Removal

A common type of cancer surgery is tumour removal. This procedure is also known as a “resection” or “excision.” The tumour and some good tissue close to it are routinely removed by your doctor. The margin is the tissue that surrounds the tumour.

Debulking

Debulking is a procedure that removes part of a tumour but not all of it. It’s possible that your doctor won’t be able to remove the entire tumour. It could cause harm to other parts of your body or be overly huge. Debulking is a surgical procedure that eliminates as much of the tumour as possible.

Since cancer surgery is major surgery, there are certain other surgical methods used by doctors to reduce the overall effect of surgery on the patients

Some of them are as follows:-

• Laparoscopic surgery
• Laser surgery
• Cryosurgery
• Mohs surgery
• Endoscopy

Cancer is a disease that can induce fear, yet it is curable and can be permanently eradicated from the body if properly treated. It is critical to seek the advice and consultation of a qualified physician.