Surgical Oncology
There are different types of treatment options available for patients with cancer. In addition to chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and radiation, many patients may also undergo surgery as part of their treatment plan for a cancer diagnosis.
Surgical oncology procedures performed by a general surgeon may be recommended as a treatment for the following conditions:
- Breast cancer
- Colorectal cancer
- Endocrine cancer
- Gastrointestinal cancer (stomach cancer)
- Thyroid/parathyroid cancer
- Lung cancer
- Melanoma and skin cancer
- Pancreatic cancer
- Sarcomas
Types of Cancer Surgery
Though there are many types of surgical methods used to treat cancer, the way your surgery is performed will be based on the purpose of the surgery, the specific area of the body that requires surgery, and the amount of tissue that needs to be removed.
Surgery performed as a treatment for cancer may be open or laparoscopic and can also often be performed using the daVinci® surgical robot system.
- Robotic surgery performed with one of Archbold’s da Vinci® Surgical Systems offers a minimally invasive alternative to both open surgery and laparoscopy. Because robotic surgery requires only a few tiny incisions and offers greater vision, precision, and control for the surgeon, patients often recover sooner and are able to move on to additional treatments when needed.
- With laparoscopic surgery, the surgeon makes a few small cuts, rather than one large one. A thin, long tube (called a laparoscope) with a tiny camera is inserted into one of the small cuts. The camera projects images from the inside of the body onto a monitor, which allows your surgeon a clear and magnified view of the area they are working in. Using special surgical tools (that are inserted through the other small cuts) the surgeon will remove the tumor and also some healthy tissue.
- In open surgery, the surgeon makes one large cut to remove the tumor, along with some healthy tissue, and maybe some nearby lymph nodes, if needed.