Cancer Surgery is an operation to remove part of your body to diagnose or treat cancer that remains the foundation of cancer treatment.
The main reasons you may have cancer surgery are:
Cancer Prevention : If you are at risk for cancer in certain tissues or organs, your doctor may recommend that you remove them or organs before they develop.For example, if you were born with a genetic condition called familial adenomatous polyposis, your doctor may use cancer surgery to remove the colon and rectum because you are at risk for colon cancer.
Diagnosis: Your doctor may use a form of cancer surgery to remove all or part of a tumor — allowing the tumor to be studied under a microscope — to determine whether the growth is cancerous (malignant) or noncancerous (benign).
Staging : Cancer surgery helps your doctor define how advanced your cancer is, called its stage. Surgery allows your doctor to evaluate the size of your tumor and determine whether it’s traveled to your lymph nodes. Additional tests might be necessary to gauge your cancer’s stage.
Primary Treatment : For many tumors, cancer surgery is the best chance for a cure, especially if the cancer is localized and hasn’t spread.
Debulking : When it’s not possible to remove all of a cancerous tumor — for example, because doing so may severely harm an organ — your doctor may remove as much as possible (debulking) in order to make chemotherapy or radiation more effective.
What side effects you might experience after cancer surgery will depend on your specific surgery. In general, most cancer operations carry a risk of pain , infection , Loss of organ function , bleeding , blood clots and Altered bowel and bladder function.
REFRENCE : www.mayoclinic.org
