Information About Cancer Surgery

The number one aspect of cancer treatment, is cancer surgery. Surgery may be used for one or more reasons. It can be used to remove the cancerous area, the tumor or growth, to repair damage that was done by a tumor or growth, to remove a piece of the tumor in order to examine it to see if it is indeed cancerous or perhaps to prevent a person from contracting cancer. If there is a genetic history for example of some sort of cancer, for instance colon cancer, than removing that part of the body which might well be susceptible to cancer can prevent it's possibility, not from cancer itself but from that particular form of cancer.

Cancer surgery has several forms, done for various reasons. One form is called staging. This is done when the doctor wants to find out what stage the cancer has reached in its formation. For example, what size is the tumor and has it spread and involved other parts of the body.

Another form of cancer surgery is called primary surgery. This is when the cancerous area is highly located and doesn't appear to have spread. The tumor is then often removed and other forms of treatment used in conjunction with the surgery, such as radiation or chemotherapy, to kill any cancer cells that may remain.

Still a third form of this surgery is called debulking. In this form of cancer surgery, when it is impossible to remove the entire cancerous area, a portion of it is removed, with the goal of possibly making the radiation or chemotherapy used more effective.

Cancer surgery is also used, not to remove the cancer but rather to eliminate the symptoms or the side effects of the cancer.
Examples of this would be to relieve such a thing as pain being caused by a tumor pressing on a nerve or by a tumor causing some sort of an obstruction in the body.

In many cases of cancer surgery, the surgeon will remove not only the cancerous tissues involved but also some of the healthy tissues surrounding them, as a safety measure in striving to remove all of the cancerous tissues. The surgeon will also many times remove some of the lymph nodes, in order to test them to see if the cancer has spread into their area.

In the cases of different kinds of cancer, that is located and attacking different parts of the body, the cancer surgeries will take different forms. For breast cancer for example, cancer surgery may mean the removal of one or both breasts, that is the performance of a mastectomy, or it may mean the removal of that part of the breast where the cancer is located, along with some of the surrounding healthy tissues. This is called a lumpectomy.

In the case of lung cancer, cancer surgery may mean the removal of an entire lung, which is called a pneumonectomy or it may mean the removal of part of one lung, which is called a lobectomy.

Don't avoid being checked if you feel something is wrong. If you do have cancer and surgery is called for, the sooner that you get it done, the better. Treat yourself as you would treat a friend and give yourself good advice and follow it.