Common reasons that Surgery is used against cancer include:
- Preventing cancer: If you have a high chance of contracting cancer in other tissues or organs, it may be recommended that the doctor remove certain tissues or organs before cancer. For example, if you are born with a genetic disorder called family adenomatous polyposis, the doctor may use cancer surgeries to correct the colon and rectum, since you have a high chance of contracting Colon Cancer.
- Diagnosis: Your doctor can use a type of cancer Surgery to remove all or part of the tumour С allowing the tumour to be analyzed under a microscope С to decide whether the tumour is cancerous (malignant) or non-cancerous (benign).
- Staging: Cancer Surgery lets the doctor decide how advanced the cancer is. This is called its stage. Surgery helps the doctor to measure the extent of the tumour and to assess if it has spread to your lymph nodes. Additional testing can be required to determine the stage of the cancer.
- Treatment: Cancer Surgery is one of the primary treatments and is the best hope of a cure for many cancers, particularly if the cancer is small and has not spread.
- Debulking: If it is not possible to remove all cancerous tumours, as this may cause significant organ damage, the doctor can remove as much tumour (debulking) as possible to make Chemotherapy or radiation more successful.
- Relieving symptoms: Surgery is occasionally used to improve quality of life rather than to treat the cancer itself, to relieve Pain caused by a nerve or bone tumour, or to remove a tumour that blocks your intestine.
