Surgery

For many tumors, surgery is the best chance for a cure, especially if the tumor is located in one area of the body and hasn’t spread. When surgeons cannot remove the entire tumor without damaging certain organs, they remove as much of the tumor as they can in a procedure called ‘debulking’ and then use chemotherapy or radiation to eradicate the rest of the tumor.

 

Preventative cancer surgery

Surgery can also be preventive; for example, if you are at a high risk of developing a certain kind of cancer, your doctor might advise surgery to remove tissues or organs before cancer has a chance to develop.

 

Diagnostic cancer surgery

Doctors also use surgery for diagnostic purposes to determine whether tumors are malignant or benign or cancerous. They do this by removing a tissue sample for pathological testing.

 

Side effects of surgery