Surgical oncology is a subspecialty of medicine that focuses on using surgical procedures to diagnose, stage, and treat cancer. It is one of several treatment modalities, alongside medical oncology (chemotherapy, immunotherapy) and radiation oncology, used to manage cancer.
A surgical oncologist is a highly trained surgeon with specialized expertise in cancer management.
Primary functions
Diagnosis: Surgical oncologists perform biopsies—removing a small tissue sample for lab analysis—to confirm if a tumor is cancerous and identify its characteristics.
Staging: By exploring the tumor and nearby tissues, including lymph nodes, they can determine the extent of cancer spread, which is critical
for planning further treatment.
Treatment: They perform operations to remove cancerous tumors. For localized cancers, surgery can be curative. In other cases, it may be used to
remove as much of the tumor as possible (debulking) to make other treatments more effective.
Palliative care: Surgical oncologists can perform procedures to relieve pain and other symptoms caused by advanced cancer, improving a patient's
quality of life.
Prevention: In high-risk patients, such as those with certain genetic mutations, they may perform prophylactic surgery to remove organs or
tissue before cancer develops.
Reconstruction: They perform reconstructive surgeries after tumor removal to restore a patient's appearance and function, such as breast reconstruction
after a mastectomy.
Surgical techniques
Surgical oncology uses a variety of modern techniques, which are often less invasive than traditional open surgery:
Open surgery: This involves a single, large incision to access and remove a tumor.
Minimally invasive surgery: Techniques like laparoscopy and robotic surgery use small incisions, leading to less pain and quicker recovery times.
Cryosurgery: Uses liquid nitrogen to freeze and destroy cancer cells.
Radiofrequency ablation: Uses heat from radio waves to destroy tumors, especially in the liver, kidney, and lungs.
Multidisciplinary approach
Surgical oncologists rarely work alone. They are part of a multidisciplinary team that includes:
Medical oncologists
Radiation oncologists
Pathologists
Radiologists
This collaboration ensures that a personalized treatment plan is developed for each patient, often combining surgery with other therapies like
chemotherapy or radiation.
